Warli painting

Warli painting is a style of tribal art mostly created by the Adivasi from the North Sahyadri Range in India. This range encompasses cities such as Dahanu, Talasari, Jawhar, Palghar, Mokhada, and Vikramgadh of Palghar district. This tribal art originated from Maharashtra, where it is still practiced today.

The Warli tribe is one of the largest in India, located right outside of Mumbai. Despite being close to one of the largest cities in India, the Warli reject much of contemporary culture. The style of Warli painting was not discovered until the 1970's even though the tribal style of art is thought to date back as early as 10th century A.D. The Warli culture is centered around the concept of Mother Nature and elements of nature are often focal points depicted in Warli painting. Farming is their main way of life and a large source of food for the tribe. They greatly respect nature and wildlife for the resources that it provides for life. Warli used the clay huts as the backdrop to their paintings, similar to how ancient people used caves as their canvases.

These rudimentary wall paintings use a set of basic geometric shapes: a circle, a triangle, and a square. These shapes are symbolic of different elements of nature. The circle and the triangle come from their observation of nature. The circle is representing the sun and the moon while the triangle is derived from mountains and pointed trees. In contrast, the square appears to be a human invention, indicating a sacred enclosure or a piece of land. The central motif in each ritual painting is the square, known as the "chalk" or "Shaukat", mostly of two types known as Devchauk and Lagnachauk. Inside a Devchauk is usually Palaghata, the mother goddess, symbolizing fertility.

Male gods are unusual among the Warli and are frequently related to spirits, which have taken human shape. The central motif in the ritual painting is surrounded by scenes portraying hunting, fishing, and farming as well as trees and animals. Festivals and dances are common scenes depicted in the ritual paintings. Human and animal bodies are represented by two inverse triangles joined at their tips. The upper triangle depicts the torso and the lower triangle the pelvis. Their precarious equilibrium symbolizes the balance of the universe. The representation also has the practical and amusing advantage of animating the bodies. 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". Apart from ritualistic paintings, other Warli paintings covered day-to-day activities of the village people.

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