Thaindian News

New Delhi, March 25 (IANS) Art in the tribal Gond villages of Madhya Pradesh follows its folklore and speaks of mundane concerns — mores, fears, religion and micro-economics — that helps the community stay rooted to the soil.
Human-animal conflict is foremost among the ethnic concerns that keeps the community, traditional inhabitants of the forests of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, occupied and sometimes on the move, dictating ways of life.

“This constant tussle between man and animal has spawned a body of folktales that use animals and local deities as metaphors to portray a primitive lifestyle that is gradually opening up to change,” said Gond sculptor Sukhandi Vyam, who sculpts Gond folktales in wood.

Vyam has displayed his work at an exhibition titled “God Father, Fox Mother, Their Daughter and Other Stories”, a collection of 20-odd Sagun and Sal hardwood sculptures, at the Wieden + Kennedy gallery in the capital.

The fables on the lines of Jataka tales (literature concerning the previous births of the Buddha) that Vyam sculpts are laced with pagan rituals and age-old traditions.

One of the stories “Kaliya Aur Kutta” is that of a fox and a dog, who became friends, mated and gave birth to a girl. The dog, who is the father, begged in the nearby villages and stole from the people to raise the baby and eventually married her off. But the fox mother could not visit her daughter for fear of being attacked by humans.

One day, when the daughter’s family members were working on the fields, the fox visited her. After a meal and ‘mahua’ (local brew), she happily howled.

Afraid of being discovered, the daughter hit the mother with a pestle, killing her accidentally. She hid the corpse in the granary. A few days later, the grains turned into jewels.

Vyam’s sculpture, “Dog Father, Fox Mother and their Daughter”, the lore from which the show takes off is an abstract composition in the crude central Indian aboriginal style. While the features are sharply etched, the contours and the limbs are blurred.

“I have been carving clay and wood artefacts since the age of 10. Most of my work like all other artists of our community is woven around the ‘riti-riwaz’ (traditions) of our tribe,” the artist said.

The Gond, one of the most primitive tribes in the region, is also one of the biggest ethnic groups in the state accounting for nearly 20 per cent of the tribal population.

Gond art is often influenced by its wedding rites.

“We craft idols of ‘dano devta’ and ‘dani devi’; colour them with lime and turmeric paste and place them at the bottom of the elevated marquee where the bride and groom solemnise the marriage. The divine couple brings luck,” he said.

The “Mangrohi mandap”- another traditional wedding artefact on display at the exhibition - is made of sal wood and is embellished with insets of tribal deities.

“The artefact, usually placed at the wedding venue, is decorated with turmeric, kumkum (vermillion) and incense sticks,” he said. Coconuts and mahua are offered to the tall totem for blessings.

A “set of owls”, two friendly saucer-eyed wizened creatures on a wooden perch, draws the viewer with their mischief and playful lines.

“Known as goddess Lakshmi’s mascot, owls in the Gond community are messengers of death. Legends cite that owls carry the news of deaths in the vicinity of Gond villages,” the sculptor said.

The exhibition, which opened March 23 closes April 23.