Pithora Painting

Gujarat

About  A Pithora is a living testament of an ever changing ethos exemplifying highly enriched Folk Art culture of Gujarat. It incorporates all of natures bounty enmeshed with the encroachments of human civilization encased in a childlike delight of discovery. A Pithora as a mural is considered one of the largest works of its kind in the world today in the annals of cultural anthropology. It brings with it a sense of exuberant energy in color harking back to mankind’s earliest expressions in creativity. A Pithora Mural whether enhancing a storefront, redefining a wall exterior or in the form of a painted wall hanging balancing a living room interior in an urban setting, takes one back to the dawn of human creative expressionism. The vivid usage of color and the abstraction of form makes one yearn for the rolling hills and pristinely mysterious countryside. Today, the ritual Pithora Mural painter is beginning to gain acceptance as an integral urban design element for his sense of artistic style and the depiction of everyday surroundings with an almost childlike visual appeal. The Pithora whether tantalizing a wall as a mural or a painting illuminating an interior, contains elements drawn from oral history, tribal legends and fantasy, stunning silhouettes of galloping horses, birds and animals, hills and topography sharing space with aspects of the netherworld, men and women, all to create a veritable tapestry of magic in color and form. Reds, yellows and blues seem to be at play with secondary layers of colors depicting aspects and attributes of nature but never imitating it. There is an earthy appeal of raw energy and movement which seems to flow outward and beyond the borders of the painting enlivening its surroundings. As a mural in a garden exterior, the Pithora draws you into its world of fantasy and tales sensitizing the spaces around. A painting on a background of white or lusty brown generates a rustic ambience complementing the interior space. Traditional Trivia The Pithora is a folk art form originating from an ancient ritualistic tradition of mural paintings initiated within tribal beliefs and customs in the region of Chhota Udepur in Vadodara district. The Rathwa, Bhil and Nayak adivasi communities revere this art form though it is always members of the Rathwa community who are the traditional painters and storytellers as Pithora Dev is their principal deity presiding over every aspect of their existence. It is commissioned as an appeasement to the central Godhead of the Rathwa, ‘Pithora’ and upon completion the entire painting is termed as a ‘Pithora’. The painting of a mural involves a series of rituals flowing into days and nights of invocations, singing and dancing, renditions of myths, legends and oral traditions and painting with a fervour and intensity invoking the very act of creation. A variety of factors are responsible for nuances in style according to need and interpretation. The Gods are installed on the wall by means of colourful paintings which represent the tribal's entire cosmos and their myth of creation. Through an invocation ceremony, at which offerings of food and liquer distilled from the sacred ‘mahuda’ tree are made, the deities are invited to descend into the painting and dwell therein thus ensuring divine protection. The Pithora Mural still continues to hold a place of pride and high ritual in tribal society today. The younger generations of painters though respecting the traditions of yore are exploring new boundaries through murals and paintings to cater to a wider commercially driven market.