Warli Painting

Warli Painting is the folk painting of Maharashtra. The name ‘Warli’ is inspired by the largest tribe found in
the northern outskirts of Maharashtra’s capital Mumbai. It is dated back to the 10th century AD.
Evolution of Warli Paintings
About Warli Tribes: The Warli Tribe is an indigenous tribe, found in Western India. Portions of
mountainous as well as coastal regions of the Maharashtra-Gujarat border are inhabited by the Warli/Varli
tribes. A few points to be noted about this tribe are:
Important Locations where the Warli tribesmen are found:
Maharashtra – Districts of Jawhar, Mokhada, Dahanu and Talasari talukas of the northern Palghar,
parts of Nashik and Dhule.
Gujarat – Districts of Valsad, Dangs, Navsari and Surat.
Dadra, Nagara, and Daman and Diu Union Territory.
The language spoken by Warli tribe:
 Varli language is in an unwritten form that is used by Warli tribes. It is classified as Konkani language.
 Traditionally, they were a semi-nomadic tribe. They started with hunting. The tribe is usually led by one
head. Presently, the tribe is found in agriculture and many of them grow crops like rice and wheat.
 They worship nature.
 Tarpa dance is associated with the Warli tribe.
 The Warli art paintings also depict Tarpa dance.
Warli Revolt:
It took place in 1945 in Maharashtra (Zari village of Talasari taluka.)
The revolt was against the exploitation the tribes suffered at the hands of landlords.
Many tribal women of Warli participated in the revolt.
Godaveri Parulekar (Godutai) was the then Kisan Sabha leader, who supported the Warli women revolt.
Read about Scheduled Tribes and major tribes in India in the links mentioned below:
Scheduled Tribes in India
Major Tribes in India

History of Warli Art

Warli art is often spelt as Varli art. Candidates should not get confused with different spellings. Warli/Varli
or Warli paintings/Varli paintings are the same.
The term ‘Warli’ is derived from ‘Waral’ which means a small piece of tilled land. The Warli art is inspired
by the tribes’ coexistence with nature and the forests.
The exact origin of the Warli art paintings is debated but as it is considered to be one of the oldest paintings
in India; it is reported to originate in 10t century AD or before.
Categories of Warli Paintings
Warli paintings can be categorised into four groups:
1. The Gods – The warli paintings related to this category revolve around the old folklores of the Warli
tribe. Through this warli art, the tribesmen show the history that they believe in.
2. The People – Through these warli paintings, they depict good and bad deeds by the people.
3. The Animals – Many animals that were in their surroundings, are depicted in these Warli paintings.
Tiger is the famous animal painting in Warli art.
4. Rights and Ritual – The most prominent of all the categories is the Warli paintings depicting rights and
rituals. The joy, happiness, celebration, day to day activities are depicted under this category.

Salient Features of Warli Paintings/Warli Art

The main features of the Warli art paintings are:

1. It originated in Maharashtra.
2. The warli paintings are related with the daily events that are common to the tribes.
3. Most Warli art themes revolve around people dancing in spirals, and in open-ended circles.
4. Originally, the paintings were done on walls but gradually warli art was drawn on various other
objects like:
1. Bamboo
2. Cloth
3. Mud pots
4. Dried bottle gourd
5. Earlier only two colours were used in the Varli paintings:

1. Earth brown
2. White by rice paste; but with time, the background colours of the Warli art also include —
Henna, Indigo, Ochre, Black, Earthy mud, Brick red.

6. Initially, only Warli women called Savasini used to do the Varli paintings, however, gradually it was
shifted to men folks too and they also began Warli painting.
7. No mythological stories are depicted in the Warli Art of Warli paintings.
8. One of the most famous paintings is ‘Chawk’ where married women paint on their kitchen walls with
white color. A rectangular space with Goddess Palaghat (A fertility God) is painted in the center.
Around the Goddess; trees, men performing daily activities, dancers, objects used by women for
many activities, and animals are also painted.
9. Basic Geometric Shapes used in the Warli wall paintings:

1. Triangles
 2. Circles
3. Squares
4. Dots
5. Dashes

Concept of Warli Painting

 This art is 2 dimensional with no perspective or proportion.

 Warli painting is simple and linear, with maximum use of triangular shapes.
 They draw inspiration from every life for their themes.
 The most important aspect of the painting is that it does not depict mythological characters or images
of deities, but social life.
 Pictures of human beings and animals along with scenes from daily life are created in a loose
rhythmic pattern.
 It also represents fertility as the tribal belief revolve around the circle of Birth and Death.
 Tribal worship nature in many forms sun and moon, god of thunder, lighting wind, rain etc.
 Traditional concepts are still adhered to but at the same time, new concepts have been allowed to
seep in which helps them to face new challenges from the market.

Process of Warli Painting

1. The grammar of Warli painting is simple.

2. They are based on three elementary shapes combined in various ways:

 The triangle (reminiscent of the pointed form of the sacred mountains and human forms)
 The circle (the sun and the moon) and the visual pattern of the narration,
 The square (which is the shape both of the sacred space and the piece of land) Dots and dashes
represent geometrical designs and single line.

3. The figures and traditional motifs are very repetitive and highly symbolic.
4. When looked closely, they have a light singing and swirling movement, describing their daily
activities.
5. To paint on canvas, they use poster colour mixed with glue to make it more durable.
6. For the base, they still use the same material, cow dung, coal, indigo, mud, geru but mixed with glue.
7. Traditionally, their paintings are made on walls and the colours they use to paint on walls are not
permanent colours.
8. Typically, the Background colours of their paintings are Henna, Indigo, Ochre, Black, Earthy mud,
Brick red (Geru).

1. what is warli art

2. how it is related to mathematics ?
3. visualize the culture differences between Kerala and himachal Pradesh through warli art ?
Ans.1 Warli painting is a type of tribal art created primarily by tribal people from Maharashtra's
North Sahyadri Range.
Ans 2. Step-by-step explanation:

Women created the majority of Warli paintings. The most important aspect of the painting is that it depicts
social life rather than mythological characters or images of deities.

The majority of Warli Art is based on geometrical mathematics. The basic geometric shapes used in
these rudimentary wall paintings are a circle, a triangle, and a square. These shapes represent various
elements of nature. Their observations of nature inspired them to create geometrical the circle and triangle.

Ans3.The following visuals of Warli paintings of Kerala (1) and Himachal Pradesh (2) define the cultural
differences between them: