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Brain-booster / 15 Sep 2020

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

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Current Affairs Brain Booster for UPSC & State PCS Examination


Topic: Warli Paintings

Warli Paintings

Why in News?

  • 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.

About Warli

  • 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.

Theme of Warli Paintings

  • 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.

Figures and Shapes

  • 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.