Mandana: A Tale Of Culture, Art And Aesthetics

I have been working with two forest-based communities, Bhils and Garasiya, in Kotra, a block in south Rajasthan. Throughout my fellowship, I have been a part of conversations where villagers are discussing about the forest cover getting thinner, the leopard appearances, the agriculture, and the weather clock showing their strong connection with the forest they reside in.

However, and unfortunately, so far I have never come across anything in writing that speaks about their history, heritage, culture, rituals and values. This is not new or unknown. The systemic loss of tribal cultural due to lack of adequate and quality documentation has been our issue. This blog is to tell you about the community in Kotra that has a traditional art form, called Mandana.

My first exposure to this art was when I visited Sulav, a village in Kotra. Me and Anita Ji (my colleague) passed by a home that was freshly re-coated with mud and cow dung paste. There were some colourful designs painted on it. At that time, I did not think of it much and just moved on with my routine work. Recently, I have unraveled this art form. I found that it gracefully tells the tales of the community and its relationship with the forest.

Mandana As A Community Practice

The women from Kotra practice this art on the mud floors and walls of their homes. It’s more of a leisure activity as women will gather to draw Mandanas in households if there is marriage, birth, or some festival.

Mandana-making always happens at a specific time of the year like summer, when marriages happen as people have time for celebrations. During summer, there’s no water for agriculture. So people do other cultural activities like getting married during this time of the year. Also, it is a part of their heritage and a way of passing down knowledge to the next generation. All of these women have learned the art either from their grandmother, mother, or mother-in-law.

Interestingly, recently while talking to some women who make Mandana, they shared that their brothers or other males in the family have a talent in this art as well.

Material Used

Traditionally, they used different kinds of mud, coal, leaves, and flowers (like Kesuri) to have different colors, twigs as brushes, and grains and seeds as decorations to make these Mandana designs. But now, they have started using some artificial colours for the drawings.

Mandana designs have elements of nature like birds and animals from the jungle, trees, flowers, and leaves. Additionally, they also draw the everyday articles they use like kothi (a container made up of mud and stones to store grains), earthen pots, etc. But in all of these, I find the depiction of activities like honey harvesting, dancing, and marriage as the most interesting ones.

From Walls To Canvases

Mandana is made on walls or floors. Through some workshops, my host organization got these drawings on canvases, cards, small paintings, bookmarks, etc. This was an attempt by the organization to commercialize this art and generate a livelihood for these women. Also, in the longer run, Kotra Adivasi Sansthan is hoping that this might prevent this art form from going extinct as people in the villages are either migrating or building a ‘pakka house’. And if these women do not start practicing the art in other mediums, it might not survive.

First, the organization held a workshop for some women to learn how to draw on paper with pencils and pens. And then develop a basic understanding of color and using different brushes for different strokes. However, throughout this process, we made sure that they made their original designs.

After the workshop, we held an exhibition of all the big canvas paintings. In the exhibition, some of the paintings were sold. One of the women from the community was present to share about the art with the visitors. Following this first attempt, the organization enabled another workshop where the previous workshop participants were trained to draw on even smaller papers in the form of greetings, bookmarks, and paintings.

The artworks made in the second workshop were appreciated by a larger audience including the government departments, and visitors at the exhibition held at Banswara. Now, we are also looking at ways to collectivize these women in a self help group or register them as a society. We also want to connect these women through marketing channels like shops, art markets, and exhibitions and make them independent.