Virtual tour of Gond painting at Odisha State Tribal Museum

Bhubaneswar, June 26: The ST & SC Development Department has taken up virtual tour of Odisha State Tribal Museum on every Sunday. The visitors can visit the traditional Art and Craft: Gond Painting on 27th June by opening the Facebook and Twitter pages @stscdev, @scstrti, said Director, SCSTRTI, Prof. (Dr.) A.B. Ota. Gonds are one of the largest tribal communities of Central India, spread over the States of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Eastern Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. In Odisha, the Gonds live in Nabarangapur, Sundargarh, Sambalpur, Balangir and Kalahandi districts. The Gond is numerically the most dominant tribe of India. Next to the Kondhs, the Gonds are numerically the largest tribal community in Odisha. Every clan paints on walls as a part of ritual observances. Each clan has an animal totem which is painted on walls and worshipped. Some of the totems are tiger, peacock, tortoise, eagle, elephant, snake which represent a separate clan. In recent years, the paintings by the Gond community of Central India have gained much National and International recognition. The Gond community of Odisha follows the same tradition of style with significant differences from the more commonly seen Gond paintings from Madhya Pradesh. Earlier Gonds did not use artificial colours to paint.  The distinctive style of the Gond painting was originally made with natural dyes. They used red earth and lamp black. This has changed with time. In its present form Gond paintings are a viable commercial activity and have converted into an income-generating art form for the community. The scenes of these paintings continue to be drawn from the nature and the folklore of the community. However, newer materials like canvas and acrylic paints are now being used.