Simple fashion statements on walls & floors

One of the oldest tribal arts in India is mandana. And, one of the oldest tribal communities in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Meenas, specialise in this fashion of painting.

Within the Meena community, mostly its women paint mandanas. They do not get any formal training, nor is it recognised as a discipline. On the contrary, the new generation learns the art by observing and helping their mothers.

Mandana is derived from the word ‘mandan’ meaning decoration and beautification. In the local language, the art refers to drawing in the context of chitramandana or ‘drawing a picture’.

The art has been practised for centuries by the women of the community to be used as decorations on special or festive occasions.

These paintings usually depict the main deity of the festival. The motifs, called shubhmanglik, denote good omens. The other patterns seen in mandana paintings reflect Vedic yagna, vastupurasha mandalas, and the floor plans of ancient temples.

Mandana paintings often decorate the walls and the floors, both within and surrounding the house, in order to ward off evil and invoke god’s blessings.

It is said that in Rajasthan, mandana goes on the walls and the floor, while in Madhya Pradesh it’s usually restricted to the floor.

There is a specific way to draw the perfect mandana. First, the walls or floors are plastered with clay, along with a mixture of cow-dung and water. Tools like brushes made of date twig, a clump of hair and cotton are used for drawing. But usually, the women like to draw with a piece of sari turned into a ball.

They dip it in a colour mixture and make patterns, usually drawing the syllable ‘OM’ in the centre and other figures and motifs around the word. Once the motifs are made, they are then filled with the basic colours of white and red, derived locally. White paint is khadiya, made of chalk, while the red pigment is geru, made of brick.

The drawings are delicate depictions and do not follow any set pattern.

The themes are elements of nature such as flowers and plants, birds and animals. Peacocks drawn in different ways is the all-time-favourite design.

The other prominent designs in this art form include deities or others who are perceived to have taken the form of an animal (zoomorphs), as well as humans depicted in the earliest forms of wall art, known as anthromorphs.

Certain mandanas are inspired by geometric forms. Tapki kemandanas uses a number of points that are plotted in a specific manner in order to accurately mimic a graph, resulting in geometrical shapes.

Another popular motif is that of a jaali  or a lattice screen, inspired by the jaalis work commonly seen in Indian design and architecture.

Tonk and Sawai Madhopur in Rajasthan are two among the few villages where this art form is prevalent.