Meena Art of Rajasthan

Meena Art of Rajasthan

The Minas also known as Meenas, are the largest Schedule Tribe of Rajasthan. They are mainly concentrated in Jaipur, Alwar, Bharatpur, Sawai Madhopur, Tonk and Bundi districts of Rajasthan. They trace their descent from Meenavatar, believed to be an incarnation of Lord Vishnu in the form of a fish.

The Minas also referred to as Ujla Minas and are subdivided into Zamindar Mina, who are agriculturist, animal herdsman and Chowkidar Mina. The Chowkidar Minas did not surrendered to Rajputs and kept in carrying out guerrilla warfare. The Minas have traditional art form (graphic and drawing) by which wall of the houses and floors are decorated. Peacock is the favourite of a Mina Artist. Besides painting of gotrejes, they also draw variety of deities. Paintings are mostly drawn by ladies.

The Minas are expert in preparation of Mandanas. It means kriya or sanja that is a decorative design with a definite meaning or hypothesis. It is the regional folk painting of Rajasthan and its adjacent states. However Mandanas are acclaimed for its distinctiveness and beauty.

The females of the Mina community decorate their walls and courtyards of the houses with painting of a number of Mandanas which are known under different appellation like Mandana of marriage, Mandana of Govardhan Puja, Mandana of other festivals and occasions and so on. However, drawing Mandana during Holi and Govardhan Puja is most important.

In rural areas, females before drawing of Mandana, prepare the base where they draw Mandana or any form of drawing. The base is prepared by plastering the wall with mixture of cow dung or yellow mud locally known as peeli mitti. Combination of both the material gives the colour of Indian red. Sometimes two or three times plastering is being made to give the base of painting elegant look. After plastering, no painting is done for one or two days to allow the place completely dry up. The painting is done with index finger and thumb. Some females use twig of date palm as painting brush. In such case, front part of the twig is crushed with the help of stone or brick. In some other occasions, it is also observed that females wrap the index finger and thumb with a thin piece of cloth while they are engaged in painting.

For painting, white and Indian red colour are used. White colour is obtained from locally available lime or white clay while Indian red colour is prepared from mixing cow dung and yellow mud. To make distinctive contrast at the time of preparing painting with Indian red colour, the base is prepared by plastering the area with white clay or lime. In urban areas, Mina females sometimes draw paintings by using chemical colour especially acrylic or oil colours.

It is believed that drawing during auspicious occasions like marriage keeping the house without painting of Mandana is a sign of bad omen which led to misfortune. They paint number of animals, plants etc. In the Mina village more than one hundred fifty variety of peacock can be seen. Besides animals, birds etc., some geomorphic and anthropomorphic designs can also be noticed in their creative work. Dots and circles are frequently observed in their drawings.

Besides painting, a very few Mina houses and grain containers are provided with relief work or relief Mandana. In relief work, abstract and symbolic designs are seen. Apart from it anthropomorphic, zoomorphic, geomorphic and geometric designs can also be envisaged.

Garasia Art of Rajasthan

Garasia Art of Rajasthan

The Garasia also known as Girasia, live in the hill tract of the Aravalli in Sirohi, Pali and Udaipur district of Rajasthan. According to various opinions, Garasia means people who live in hill or forest dwellers. Garasia language is a mixture of Mewari, Bhilli and Gujarati.

The Garasias are expert in line and graphic drawing. Their painting tradition may be put under the canopy of drawing work, relief work and tattooing. They paint Gotrej i.e., clan goddesses like Jaru Mata, Alu Mata, Amba Mata, etc. during marriage. Apart from painting, on floor and wall during marriage and other prime festive occasions like Holi, Deepawali, Gangour, Navaratri etc., they also decorate kothi (grain container) with excellent relief work. The painting tradition of Garasia is simple. With the help of line drawing, they draw ghar (house), hathi (elephant), Shiv and Parvati (Hindu god and goddess), a ploughing farmer with utmost passion and devotion. As stated earlier they draw Gotrej (clan goddess) in marriage or other rituals.

The Gotrejes are the symbol of various tutelary deities or clan/lineage deities propitiated by the Garasia as Mother Goddess cult. Generally the Gotrejes other than Bheruji or Gotarji are drawn on left or right side of main entrance of the house while other side of the main gate is decorated with the Gotrej of Gotarji. It is worth mentioning that the Garasias only draw the Gotrej of their respective Mother Goddess and Bheruji or Gotarji. At least one line of the Gotrej is drawn with the dots of kumkum or kunku that is a paste of vermillion in oil. Small circles or dots are made with turmeric paste (haldi) or turmeric colour. Altogether seven lines are made in this fashion. Sometimes vermillion and turmeric lines are drawn in centre of the Gotrej or often it is drawn on one side. Various lines or geometric designs viz., semi circular lines or triangular designs are found in the Gotrejes. Outside the main chain of Gotrejes or mandal is drawn in triangular fashion which is often provided with the symbol of trident. The Gotrej is also called in the name of Mandal. The tutelary gods and goddesses are also drawn symbolically in the Gotrejes. The anointment of turmeric paste in oil (tel haldi) ceremony is often solemnized near or beneath the Gotrejes. Apart from tutelary deities, garbha griha, sabha mandap and pravesh dwar (main gate) are also symbolically depicting in some Gotrejes. Apart from Gotrejes, they also draw a number of temple paintings of Lord Shiva, Ganapati and Mother Goddess.

As far as traditional painting material is concerned, they first prepare the base where painting is done by cow dung, black sticky mud (chikna mitti) collected from the water bodies or its adjacent areas. Colours derived from various sources of clay and rocks as well as vegetative colours are traditionally used for drawing. Locally available lime in rock form and white clay colour is most commonly used. Bhali, tree bark which is locally available is boiled in water to extract brilliant red or blood red or Indian red colour. The Indian red colour is also obtained from locally available red mud often mixed with cow dung. Black colour is prepared from coal or charcoal, blue colour is prepared from the seeds of black berry or blue (used for whitening of clothes after washing) or vegetative indigo. Yellow colour is prepared from turmeric. A twig of Neem or Babul tree is smashed with stone to prepare painting brush. Nowadays, painters mainly use easily available readymade chemical colours instead of vegetable or earth colours.

Apart from the line drawing as is in vogue in the Garasia society, relief work is also found. In this connection it is to be stated that in almost all the Garasia households, kothi or grain container can easily be found for storing of grains, eatables, seeds and so on. Their expertise in relief work can be envisaged when we see that either in all the sides of the grain container or at least the front side of the same is decorated with relief work. In such relief work, they prepare the figure of human being, animals, birds, trees, flowers and a good number of geometric designs. The relief work is further beautified with the free use of glass, beads, wood etc.  Generally females prepare the relief work. Some relief work also found in the Garasia household and household articles. Relief work is mainly done by clay with or without the use of colouring agents.

Tattooing on the body is also commonly seen in the Garasia society and culture. Tattooing is generally done with an electric machine. Most often tattooing parts of the body are hands, shoulder, neck and face. Various motives that are found in their tattooing tradition include dots, tree, flower, scorpion and some geometric designs. Men often write their names, draw flower etc., while women often write the name of their husband. Apart from this both male and female often write the name of gods and goddesses of Hindu pantheon.

Bhil Art of Rajasthan

Bhil Art of Rajasthan

The Bhils are the second largest tribal community of Rajasthan. In Rajasthan they are distributed in southern districts. The word Bhil is derived from the Dravidian word ‘vil’ mean the archer. They speak Bhilli which belongs to the Indo Aryan family of languages. In Rajasthan they are well versed with other regional languages like Hindi, Mewari, Vagdi and so on.

The Bhils decorate their houses, walls, temples and shrines with paintings and artistic drawings. The mud walls are painted with the vibrant red and other natural colours. The figures drawn on them are mostly sacred and ritualistic. The main purpose of these drawings is to promote fertility, avert diseases, and to propitiate the dead and the ghost sprits. They are stylistically austere and primeval.

As already stated brilliant Indian red colour is their most favourite colour, but they also use primary colours like green, black and white. Some of the Bhils now a day’s also uses other colours like blue, yellow, purple and so on.  Traditional colours are prepared mostly from rock or clay of their habitat and surrounding areas. Carbon of the used cell is utilised for preparing black colour while black berry and turmeric are used to prepare blue, purple and yellow colour. Lime is used as white colouring agent. Raw materials like vegetative material, clay and rock etc. are crushed to make powder and then it is often mixed with warm water to form paste. Rice powder is also mixed with water to use it as paint. Now days, acrylic or synthetic colours are also used by the members of the younger generations for preparing traditional and modern paintings.

Twig of bamboo or neem is used as painter’s brush for traditional painting. Sometimes middle or ring finger of right hand is used to prepare some ethnic drawings. Pencil and scales are also recently introduced to draw the outline. At the time of using mid vein of the twigs as painter’s brush, its front part is crushed to make the surface flat and the same is used as the working edge of the brush.

Bhil painting may thematically be classified into three major categories:

1. Painting drawn during marriage and ritual ceremonies.

2. Painting for ceremonial purpose not involving any ritual. It depicts everyday life scenario including paintings of the first category, relief work, mural work and so on.

3. Tattooing.

Painting of the first category is generally drawn during marriage, ceremonies like Holi, Deepawali, Govardhan Puja, Navratri and so on. Some of the examples of such paintings are Bharadi, Bheruji-Mataji ka Dewara, Tejaji ka Sajawat, Gotrej, Gotrej Ganapati ka sath, Gai ka upar chitra and so on.  Ritual paintings are sacred or secular in nature. Sacred paintings of the Bhils are group activities, repetitive in nature with predominant format of space and design. The same is drawn on the houses, temples or shrines as collective or individual activities. Secular paintings like Jungle aur pal ka Drishya, Bharadi, Khet Hakokam, Mach aur Prani, etc. are also drawn during rituals to decorate houses. Secular paintings often depict floral or faunal pattern, geometric designs as well as sceneries of Bhil society and culture including nature that surrounds them.  Modern paintings are often connected with abstract drawing of the individual creator, mural work, emboss paintings, relief work, etc. in one hand and all sorts of traditional drawings with modern touch on the other.

The Bhils are fond of tattooing their hand or body. During fairs and festivals or in market places they often go to the tattooist who artistically tattoo on their body with electric operated machines. Names of gods and goddesses, names of the person or their near and dear one, floral and faunal design, miniature painting of deities and geometric designs are commonly tattooed.

Motives are frequently found in the Bhil paintings. These may be classified into natural objects like sun, star, moon; abstract symbols like dots, geometric designs. khadi (vertical), ulti (reverse), sidhi (horizontal) layers; animal designs like cattle, snake, elephant, rat, tiger, wild boar, goat and birds specially peacock are commonly noticed. Floral motives like leaf, flower, plants, banyan tree are also the integral part of their painting cult. Sacred motives, for example, swastika, trident, temples, shrines, ritual sacrifices; cultural and other day to day life motives like hunting, ploughing of field, mulching of cow, carrying of water by females, churning of milk, dancing, marriage possession and so on are also commonly observed motives of their painting tradition.

During Khekra or Govardhan Puja or cattle caressing ceremony, paintings are also drawn on the body of the cattle. Paintings for commercial purpose are drawn by some of the contemporary Bhil artists with adequate training, knowledge and expertise in contemporary drawing and painting. This kind of painting amply demonstrates in the work of the school going children who are expert in drawing houses, road and natural sceneries.  Some of the Bhils are also experts in relief work, emboss painting, glass work and portrait making of varied nature. With the relief work they are able to show traditional method for preparation of base for traditional painting. The base is prepared by the Bhils before painting by plastering with mud and cow dung. The contemporary painters often decorate their paintings with cloths, beads, glasses, etc. to make the design more attractive.

Kotwalia: A Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group of Gujarat

Kotwalia: A Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group of Gujarat

About Kotwalia: Kotwalia tribe is mainly distributed in the southern parts of Gujarat. Some hold the view that Kotwalias are derived from Gamit tribe. They are also known as Vitolia. Enthoven (1920) while writing about Vitolia says that they are also known as Kotwalia and Wansphodia. They have the skill of preparing bamboo articles. One of their traditional expert craftsman prepared a coat from bamboo material and presented the same to a British Officer. That officer called him by the name of Kotwalia or ‘coat wala’(Singh, 2003). They are the nomadic group. The two clans of Kotwalia are Barodia and Wansphodia. The traditional occupation of Kotwalia is making bamboo articles. In Gujarat bamboo is  called ‘Wans’ and the process of breaking them is known as ‘phodvu’ and hence combining these two words the name of ‘Wansphodia’ originates. It is believed that the Kotwalia used to work as gate keeper or guard generally known as ‘Kotwal’, hence may be known as Kotwalia.

There are four endogamous groups and exogamous kulas among the Kotwalia. The kulas are Gamiti, Choudhary, Dhobi and Nai. The kul members consider their origin from the same legendary ancestor. The kuls are of equal status, kul members help each other at the time of crisis. According to their own perception, they are lower than Rajput, Kunbi, etc. but higher than the Bhangi or Chamar. They consider themselves equal to other tribal communities such as Kokna (Singh, 2003). The Kotwalias speak their own dialects among themselves and with outsiders they speak Gujarati and often Hindi.

                          Kotwalia woman making baskets from bamboo strips

Settlement Pattern: Kotwalia generally prefer to live in the forest and its adjoining region on the banks of Tapi River in small hamlets so that they could easily get their raw materials i.e. bamboo. Their hamlets are separated and near to the other villagers so that they can sell their product and also buy their required articles from the nearby markets. They themselves construct their own houses with bamboo, wood and clay. Their huts were kachcha having one, two or even three rooms sufficient for accommodate their family. They have no bathrooms or sanitary facilities. During last few years, some pucca one room tenements have been constructed for the people of this tribe under Tribal Area Sub Plan- TASP. At some other places, the construction material- wooden slippers, Manglore tiles for roof and bamboos have been provided to them for upgrading their house or for construction of new but kuccha house (Upadhyaya and Pancholi, 2010).

                                                          Inside view of their house

Food Habits: They are generally non vegetarians. Their staple food is nagali, a coarse millet. Roti, dal, rice, corn, etc. are their main food items. They consume eggs, meat and fishes. Drinking of liquor and tea are common and both male and female consume these. On festive occasion such as marriage tadi (local made liquor) and liquor are consumed freely. It is also said that they also used to eat the flesh of dead animals which is left now.

Dress and Ornaments: Old persons wear dhoti and kurta and also large and free size of half pants and cover their head with turban. The youngsters generally put on western dresses like pant, shirts, jackets and t- shirts. Women generally put on saree with colourful blouse. Old women still wear ghagra and choli. They cover their head with a small piece of cloth known as chaniya. The old people both men and women wear ear rings made up of silver. Old women wear ankle and toe fingers rings and ornaments made of silver. They also wear chain, necklaces and black thread around their neck. The married women wear Mangal Sutra and nose ring. The Kotwalia settle their disputes among themselves under the supervision of the elderly persons of their community. If they fail to settle their dispute, then they go for police and very rarely they go to court.

                                                             A Kotwalia girl

                                                               A Kotwalia woman

Social Life: The family types of Kotwalias are patriarchal and both joint and nuclear. The family property is equally distributed among the sons but the eldest son has the dominating status and authority. The women are not allowed to claim the right on property. Although women enjoy status in domestic, economic and ritual related matters and also take part in the social gatherings. They also make contribution to the family income by helping their husband in making baskets and other works.

                                                         A Kotwalia family

References:

-          Enthoven, R.E. 1920- “The Tribes Castes of Bombay.” Bombay Govt. Central Press, rept. Vol. II, 1975. Delhi: Cosmo Publications.

-          Singh, K.S. 2003- “People of India: Gujarat, XXII, (2).” Anthropological Survey of India. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan Pvt. Ltd.

-          Upadhyaya, C. & Pancholi, R. 2010-“ Primitive Tribal Groups of Gujarat. A Baseline Survey.” Tribal Research and Training Institute, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad.

                                                           view of Tapi river

Shella: A multi ethnic village at Indo- Bangladesh border

Shella: A multi ethnic village at Indo- Bangladesh border

Village Shella is situated in East Khasi Hills District of Meghalaya, India under the Sohra Division. Shella is well connected by road ways with Shillong to Guwahati route. Shella is 500 feet above sea level. The village has Post Office, Police Station and Primary Health Centres at Sohlap and Disong. Village Shella is divided into ten hamlets namely, Sohlap, Pyrkan, Umdoh, Mawrynkhong, Jasir, Nongnong, Rymsongkatonor, Jamew, Duba and Disong which are spread over both at hills as well as in plain areas.  The village Shella is surrounded by Kalatec from the east; Khamalai, Palbasti, Norburoi, Khamohi and Khabada from the west; there is no village in north; Dalia, Khasyndha, Dishantila, Khlewumthang, Bamuntila, Adorghar and Umkhabo from the south. There are three primary schools and one secondary school at Sohlap and one higher secondary school run by Ramakrishna Mission is situated at Disong.

War Khasi is the dominating population and Christianity is the major religion. Approximately 70 % are Christians and 30 % follow Hinduism and traditional religion. There are three churches situated at Pyrkan, Mawrynkhong and Sohlap. One Roman Catholic Church comes under Sohlap. The conversion took place about 40 to 50 years back when Hindu dominancy was persists. Thomas Jone came to this village from England to preach Christianity. Theological College at Cherapunjee was also founded by him. There is also one Hindu temple of Chandi Devi situated at the BSF camp at Sohlap. Chandi Devi is worshipped in the form of a black stone. There is also another stone kept beside Chandi Devi which is also worshipped as Jainti Devi. The temple is maintained by BSF and the cash box and other monetary matters are handled by the temple committee. Bengali Brahmin use to perform all rituals organised by temple authority.

The village social system is the matrilineal. After marriage male is the head of the family. Decision making authority belongs to male. Marriage is not allowed with the same clan (kur). The youngest daughter of the family inherits the maximum property. She also owned the house, whereas, other movable and immovable property may be shared among the other brothers and sisters.

The village local administration is headed by the Head Man. Head Man of the village is the judicial authority. All the ten hamlets of the village have one Head Man and each hamlet has one secretary. Function of secretary is to select the members. There are twenty six members selected from all the hamlets. They summon Darbar to select the members. Shella, Mustoh, Nongwar, Nunnong, Umtalang, Tynger, Dewsaw, Longtrai, Lyngkhom, all these villages are under Wahahadar. Both male and female have the right to vote. Dorbar Hima is equivalent to Dorbar Shnong. Every village has to send three people to Wahahadar Dorbar. Out of these three people one can be the Head Man and another two can be the secretary. One is executive and another is the judicial body. The Joint Secretary of Khasi Autonomous Council is presently functioning as Wahahadar. Block Development Officer cannot interfere in this entire local village administration system.

The existence of intermixed community and religion are also noted from the field. Although the people of Shella speak their language and follow their own culture but there is also a touch of Bengali influence because it is situated very near to Bangladesh border.

The people of the village depend on River Shella for their main source of water. Tube well, dug well, etc. is not found in any of houses. They draw water from the river for both drinking and other purposes.

Megalithic structure at Shelle village

                                                                      Village temple

                                                           Amazing view of Shella river

                                                                       Hanging bridge

                                              A school run by Ramkrishna Mission, Shella

                                                                      Shella river

                                                                        Weekly market

                                                     A Bengali and a War Khasi Women

                                                                Indo- Bangladesh border

Taking interview with a Garo man

                                                    Some of the views of Shella village