Home

History of Gond Art

The word ‘Gond’ comes from the Dravidian expression ‘Kond’ which means ‘green mountain’. Gond

painting is a famous folk art of the Gond tribal community of central India. It is a form of painting

from folk and tribal art that is practiced by one of the largest tribes in India – the Gond – who are

predominantly from Madhya Pradesh, but can also be found in pockets of Andhra Pradesh,

Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, and Odisha. The history of the Gond people dates nearly 1400 years.

Blended with mystery, pattern, blend of colours and humour, these art pieces depict a modern

psyche.

Elements of Gond Art

The paintings use vibrant colors like orange, yellow, blue and red, and are created with articulately

drawn lines and dots as the method to bring it to life. With natural colors obtained from various

sources like flowers, stones, etc. are used for the creation of these beautiful paintings. Over the

years, the Gond artists have developed their own devices to work with various contemporary

mediums and materials. They would first make dots and calculate the volume of the images. These

dots would be connected to bring about an outer shape, which would then be filled with colours. As

they respond to the immediate social situation Bhil painting and environment, each object they come across in life is aesthetically transformed. The images are tattoos or minimalist human and animal forms.

Although Gond paintings have been centuries-old, with the passage of time, this art form has

gradually shifted from the mud walls of the houses to canvas and papers. Apart from deriving

inspirations from legends and myths, these paintings majorly feature nature as their main subject.

Badadev in Gond Art

(Gond painting by Venkat Shyam)

Stories and Symbolism in Gond Art

“Trees are very important in Gond art. For humans and animals alike – for animals and for birds too,

trees are the most important – in summer, to protect them from the sun and during the monsoon

season to protect from the rain. Trees provide nourishment and food too” says artist Venkat Raman

Singh Shyam.

Ganja Mahua Tree: It tells the story of a Brahman (upper caste) girl and Chamar (lower caste) boy –

when they fell in love, society did not accept them. So they renounced everything and went into the

forest and later were reborn as Ganja and Mahua trees. Hence, it is said that Ganja and Mahua

should not be drunk together as they can never be together.

Saja Tree: The Saja Tree is worshipped by the Bada Dev (Big God) and by the Gond community.

Pakri Tree: When new leaves bloom from this tree, the Gond community eats a dish (saag) made out

of these leaves and this protects them from many diseases and illnesses.

Peepal Tree: The Peepal tree is where the Gods (Devtas) reside and thus the Peepal tree is

considered the most important.

Tamarind Tree: The Tamarind tree also plays an important role for tribal people because they use

tamarind fruit for chutney and sell the fruit for their livelihoods. Many people in the Gond

community place a platform for gods or goddess under the trees.

Trees in Gond Art

(Gond painting by Venkat Shyam)

Music in Gond Communities

In the past, Gond Artists were responsible for passing on the traditions of the Gond kings verbally

through songs with a musical instrument called the ‘Bana’.

They would invoke the god Bada Dev at the Saja tree by playing the Bana and record the Gond

patrons’ genealogy in song. In return, they would be offered gifts of grain, clothes and maybe even

cattle or gold.

(A small snippet of Bana Player Narayandewn Tekam narrating the story of creation and Bada Dev

for one of our workshops)

Similarities between Gond Art and Aboriginal Art ?

“Gond is very similar to Aboriginal art because the Aborigines have their own stories like we do

about creation, and they too make dashes and dots. Aboriginal art and Gond art have their

connection because we are originally from the same continent of Gondwana when there were just

two continents, Gondwana and Laurasia. India and Australia came from Gondwana and America

came from Laurasia. The performances, dances and rituals, as well as the drink they serve, is like

ours. Their surname is Maravily while ours is Maravi. I spoke at the Monash University in Melbourne

and at the Queensland Art Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane on the theme, ‘You are my brother, in

you I found myself’.” – The Gond Artist Venkat Raman Singh Shyam

The paints are usually derived naturally from objects such as charcoal, coloured soil, plant sap, mud,

flowers, leaves and even cow dung. That said, due to the scarcity of natural colours, Gond artists

have begun to use poster colours and use canvas to paint on. Gond paintings bear a remarkable

likeness aboriginal art from Australia as both styles use dots to create the painting. Both art forms

feature dots of different kinds. For aboriginal art, the dots symbolise territory and dreaming while

with respect to Gond art, the shamans believe that the particles of their bodies disperse into space

to join with those of the spirits and form other bodies. This is an ancestral, poetic vision of the atom,

of the infinitely small joining the infinitely large.

~ Written by Khushi Daryani

Braj ki Lathmar Holi

No Holi coverage can be complete without the famous “Brij Ki Holi”. Hindu deities Radha and Krishna grew up in neighboring villages of Barsana and Gokul respectively in the Brij Region of India. Over there the festival is celebrated until Rang-Panchmi (5th day of Holika Dahan) in commemoration of their divine Tribal Art love for each other. “Braj ki Lathmar Holi” is a close relationship between Krishna and Holi and symbolizes the. It is said that when the teams of Nandgaon reach Barsana with pitchers, then the women of rain show lots of sticks on them. Men have to avoid sticks and at the same time, women have to be soaked in colors.

The tradition of the Holi is one where all becomes equal irrespective of their wealth, Social Status, Cast, religion  and even the enemies turn friends and everybody celebrates the festival together with a spirit of bonhomie and brotherhood.

In the evening people visit friends and relatives and exchange gifts, sweets and greetings. This helps in revitalizing relationships and strengthening emotional bonds between people.

Holi helps to bring the society together and strengthen the united fabric of our country. For, the festival is celebrated by non-Hindus also as everybody likes to be a part of such a colorful and joyous festival. The mood and festivities of Holi cut across all classes, castes, and religions and brings people together. With Holi, celebrate the onset of spring by filling their day and life with the colors of joy, prosperity, happiness, and fun.

So we all settled in the shade of a tree that day, and with the help of Santosh (and the electronic translator in our phones!…), we finally came up with a plan together: buying a number of paintings at a fixed base price, and for each sale subsequently made in Europe, remunerate the talent of the artists at its fair value, hoping that in the long term the project will provide them with a regular income…

Of course this plan required a good dose of trust and honesty, but all the artists were ready to take the risk, or to seize the chance…

I spent the rest of this day amazed by the talent and passion of these painters, through hundreds of works competing in beauty and poetry, with the difficult mission of selecting a limited number… (At the end of the day, the “limited number” had overflowed considerably!…) In order to be fair, at least one work from each artist was selected for the European adventure…

We left the village with heavy hearts, but filled with hope and enthusiasm for the Gondartindia project. When I left, I made a promise to come back next year for a longer stay… I am thirsty to learn more words, recipes and dance steps and to immerse myself in the Gond culture, this style of life imbued with gond painting simplicity and nature, so far from our so-called “civilized” world…

2020…

At home, in Ireland,…9 months later…

The covid has changed and above all slowed down our project, but our enthusiasm is still intact, as is our desire to share with you all our passion for Gond art.

We regretfully had to cancel the exhibition planned to launch the project, but we put our hearts into this website and we are finally ready to launch online sales!

By buying one of these original paintings you will bring considerable support to the artist and his family, but also you will participate in safeguarding the Gond culture, where artistic expression has always been an integral part of daily life…

For this, we are extremely grateful to you.

Welcome to WordPress! This is your first post. Edit or delete it to take the first step in your blogging journey.