Life through geometry in Warli

Subject: History

Section: Art and Culture

Context:

Warli Whisperers by the Inherited Arts Forum traces the artistic journey of the Mashe family from Maharashtra.

About Warli Paintings

Warli is a traditional art form of Maharashtra. Its roots can be traced to as early as the 10th century A.D.
These paintings are distinctive with their vivid contrast expressions.
These paintings are mainly dominated by basic geometric shapes like circles, triangles and squares.
These geometric shapes stand as a symbol of natural elements in our environment.
For example, the circles represent the sun and moon, the triangles represent the mountains and the squares are considered as the central motifs of the painting.
People and animals are represented by two inverted triangles joined together, where the upper triangle is the torso and the lower triangle is the pelvis.
The central theme of the paintings are scenes portraying hunting, fishing, farming, festival and dances, trees and animals are used to surround the central theme.
Warli art form is being used by many artists to beautify cities and spread awareness through wall paintings.
It is also being used to beautify bags, bed sheets and many other items.
Warli is the vivid expression of daily and social events of the Warli tribe of Maharashtra, used by them to embellish the walls of village houses.

Warli Tribe

They are an indigenous tribe or Adivasis, living in the Mountainous as well as coastal areas of Maharashtra-Gujarat border and surrounding areas.
They speak an unwritten Varli language which belongs to the southern zone of the Indo-Aryan languages.