CREATING LAGNA CHA CHOWKS

The warli women called Savasini meaning married women whose husbands are alive, paint a chowk or a square on their walls of their kitchen as they believe this is the most sacred wall in the house and therefore where the gods are placed. Before painting the wall surface is cleaned and polished, first with cowdung followed by Geru Mitti (red mud). The wall is polished by hand. With the help of a brush, the painter paints ‘LAGNA CHA Chowk’ on the polished wall and white colours are specially used for this. Apart from painting on the wall they are even drawn on clothes.The pictures are in a square or round format. For the warlis, life is cyclic repeating itself eternally. Circles best represent the art of warli, which has neither an end nor a beginning. At all occasions – birth, marriage, and death they draw circles, symbol of Mother Goddess. Apart from wedding ceremonies warli paintings depict the stories Dhann Ki Mela, Manir Ki Puja, which pictorialize and narrate special and specific occasions. Apart from these, there are pictures which show poverty, suffering of the human being and animals, which the people experienced during the times of flood and other crisis situations. Today, warli artists are broadening their palette for paintings created outside the traditional context, especially for exhibitions. New demand and new markets are dictating new designs with suggestions being made by designers or from those working with warli artists who exist outside the traditional space from within which warli art emerged and was sustained by.
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