Warli

Warli painting is one of the oldest art forms in India, with roots dating back to 2,500 BCE. The art was traditionally created by women of the Warli tribe on the walls of their mud homes as part of ritual celebrations — particularly for weddings and harvest festivals. The central motif, the Chaukat, is a ceremonial square always painted at weddings.

Unlike many Indian art forms that were patronised by royal courts, Warli remained a purely tribal tradition until the 1970s, when Jivya Soma Mashe brought it to national and then international attention. Mashe began painting on paper and canvas, making the art accessible beyond its village context while retaining its essential visual grammar.

Today, Warli is recognised globally and has influenced contemporary design, illustration, and fashion. The art form received GI protection in 2021. While many contemporary artists have experimented with colour and new themes, traditional Warli continues to be created in white on a mud-brown or red background, maintaining its timeless, meditative quality.

Traditional Warli paintings are created using a bamboo stick chewed at one end to form a brush, with white rice paste as the primary medium on a mud-brown background. The compositional language is built entirely from three shapes: circles (representing the sun and moon), triangles (derived from mountains and trees), and squares (representing sacred enclosures).

Human and animal figures are created from two inverted triangles joined at a single point, giving them an almost abstract, stick-figure quality. Scenes of daily life — farming, fishing, hunting, dancing — are arranged in processions and circular compositions that create a sense of continuous movement and community.