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.