Madhya Pradesh > Features > Tribal Culture

In a haat (weekly market) at Bastar, an old man in a loin cloth sells clay masks shaped out of clay pots. They will be used in folk-plays and dances. Back in his home, his women have elaborately ornamented the mud walls with murals, reliefs and carvings.

In the Jhabua district in Madhya Pradesh, oil-painted stone pillars, erected under trees are a common sight. They are obligatory memorial pillars for those who died unnatural death amongst the Bhil tribals. Carved with varying motifs, they represent an age-old tradition and carry deep emotional connotations.

Young Muria tribals join institutions called ghotuls, youth dormitories for cheliks and motiaris, boys and girls, for the selection of their lifemates. The boys create elaborately carved combs, often with motifs of the fertility cult, and gift them to girls of their choice. The more combs a girl has received, the better off she is in matters of the heart.

Beyond the surface of the obvious, there is a moving, changing population that has inhabited these lands before the Aryans came with their learning. They are the adivasis, the original people. Their manner of expression is unique, though over the centuries the lines of distinction have been blurred. They carve, they chisel, they paint, they sing and make art a representation of symbolism, stories and instinct. That they have been expressing a sense of the aesthetic from time immemorial is clear from the likes of pre-historic cave-paintings of Bhimbetka. Today, what they craft is as much utilitarian as aesthetic.

There are 46 recorded tribes in Madhya Pradesh and they form 27 per cent of the total population of the state. They are the Bhils, Gonds, Baigas, Karwars, Panikas, Saharias, Murias, Bhattars and so on. However, even while the tribes maintain their unique customs, their cultures would appear to be quite egalitarian – as we are in a state bordered by seven other states and they are a people constantly moving and imbibing.

There are common motifs – the scorpion, the snake, the fish or the horse in stylised form appear to be omnipresent, from the doors of the houses to memorial pillars, from textiles to jewellery. Innumerable rituals are celebrated and gods propitiated through the medium of the arts. There is a deity for every village, for every household object and there are gods and goddesses who preside over hills, forests and rivers.

From the organic, inanimate matter to good or bad thoughts and feelings, everything has a living reality and spiritual significance for the tribal sensibility. Their art is not isolated; it is in flux as the people. There are myths and legends, hardly any recorded facts, there are dreamtime stories – everything is related through a tale and the origins are almost always blurred.

Their crafts – brass, stone and wooden icons, their wall paintings and clay relief, are all a representation of their value systems and beliefs. They seem to create a parallel truth that may be said to occupy a middle space between the visible world and the world of imagination. And the arts must be understood thus, running somewhere between myth and truth.

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