Gond Art and Painting: Past, Present and FutureGond painting is one of many varied art forms that will be a part of the Hands of Grace handicraft exposition at the Isha Yoga Center. In this article, we look at the past, present and future of Gond art. Adventurous readers may like to attend the workshop on Gond art at the exposition!
ArticleFeb 10, 2014
Gond painting is one of many varied handicraft forms that will be a part of Hands of Grace, a handicraft exposition at the Isha Yoga Center, from February 19 – 27, 2014. In this article, we look at the past, present and future of this traditional form of tribal art. Adventurous readers may like to attend the workshop on Gond art at the exposition!
Craft: Gond Painting
Artisan: Suresh Kumar Dhurve
Place: Madhya Pradesh
Gond painting – Tree of Life by Jangarh Singh Shyam
The Gonds are among the largest tribes in Central India, numbering gond painting about 4 million. Though predominantly centered in Madhya Pradesh, they are present in significant numbers in the states of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh and Odisha. The word “Gond” comes from the Dravidian expression kond, meaning “the green mountain.” The recorded history of the Gond people goes back 1400 years, but considering that they inhabit areas where rock paintings dating to the Mesolithic have been found, their antecedents probably date back even further. Many of the Gonds customs echo that of their Mesolithic forbearers. An obvious example of this is the custom of decorating the walls of their houses, an activity that may originate in cave-dwelling traditions of their ancestors.
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