Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination (Topic: Warli Paintings)

Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination

Warli Paintings

Noida-based National Fertilizers Limited (NFL), a central Public Sector Undertaking, and country’s leading fertilizers manufacturer, is promoting warli painting.
The paintings, done by a few artists who were rendered jobless in the last few months, now adorn its outer wall of the head office.

Maharashtra is known for its Warli folk paintings.
The Warlis are an indigenous tribe or Adivasis, living in Mountainous as well as coastal areas of Maharashtra-Gujarat border and surrounding areas.
Warli paintings are believed to be one of the oldest form of art in history.
First discovered in the early 1970s, this art form can be tracked back to the 10th century A.D.
This art is very popular among the tribal community, however till date it has not gained any special recognition outside India.

These paintings do not depict mythological characters or images of deities, but depict social life.
Images of human beings and animals, along with scenes from daily life are created in a loose rhythmic pattern.
These tribal paintings of Maharashtra are traditionally done in the homes of the Warlis.
Painted white on mud walls, they are pretty close to pre-historic cave paintings in execution and usually depict scenes of human figures engaged in activities like hunting, dancing, sowing and harvesting.
This was the only means of transmitting folklore to a populace not acquainted with the written word.
Women are mainly engaged in the creation of these paintings.

These rudimentary wall paintings use a set of basic geometric shapes: a circle, a triangle, and a square.
One of the central aspects depicted in many Warli paintings is the tarpa dance. The tarpa, a trumpet-like instrument, is played in turns by different village men. Men and women entwine their hands and move in a circle around the tarpa player.
The central motif in each ritual painting is the square, known as the "chauk" or "chaukat", mostly of two types known as Devchauk and Lagnachauk. Inside a Devchauk is usually a depiction of Palaghata, the mother goddess, symbolizing fertility.
The theme of painting is also surrounded by scenes portraying hunting, fishing, and farming, and trees and animals.
Another main theme of Warli art is the denotation of a triangle that is larger at the top, representing a man; and a triangle which is wider at the bottom, representing a woman.