They still view life as a gift to be celebrated; this ancient Earth as something to be praised, revered, and also celebrated. They are those for whom the Earth is not for exploitation, not a possession or an object for exploitation, but a living being, an object of reverence, and the relationship towards it is one of connection through sacred trust and intimate love. Because they equally believe in celebrating the individual life in this world as much as in remembering, revering, and celebrating the world in the life of the individual. Therefore, the sacred land of ancestors on which someone is born is part of their fundamental psychic life experience and part of their spiritual dimension. The Earth, the field, the village enter and are stored in the memory of the people, so revering the goddess Earth, Mother Earth is merely an ethical imperative.
Sitakant Mahapatra, a contemporary Indian poet
Warli Indian art is a unique tradition in which artists, it seems, were not preoccupied with mythology, but with a strong desire to harmonize with the order of nature, thus celebrating life and honoring Mother Earth. With a unique sense of aesthetics.
Today, people around the world are concerned about environmental pollution and the catastrophic consequences of resource depletion due to the continuously growing population. In such times, traditional ethics, which inherently included nature conservation, can be considered a source of inspiration and a guideline for the future. By this, I do not mean “fixing” nature, but reviving our natural identity as an integral part of nature. Therefore, we could start by correcting our own perspective; our relationship with life as a whole. There is a rich diversity of cultural practices that nurture such ecologically healthy relationship with nature, deeply rooted in the Indian tradition, as seen in the art of Warli.
Not much is known about the origin of this primitive form of art. Some attribute its development to the 10th century AD, while other historians argue that the Warli tradition dates back to 2500 or 3000 BC. It has been brought into prominence in our time by Jivya Soma Mash. He is known as the modern father of Warli painting.
One of the characteristics of Warli art, unique among traditional art forms in India, is the absence of vivid colors. Pigments are used, typically a background in reddish ochre, made from a mixture of twigs, earth, and red brick. Figures are usually painted with only white pigment made from a mixture of rice flour, water, and a binding agent. A stripped and chewed bamboo stick was used as a brush.
The themes mainly depict a simple, everyday rural life in its many movements. The movement does not appear chaotic, but usually has a certain direction, portraying simplicity, harmony, and unity, as if mimicking nature. The scenes seem to portray a deep understanding that man is a humble part of Nature, playing his role, contributing to its harmony. It appears as though the Warli people animate everything around them; stones, plants, animals, time, mountains, rivers – everything is alive, everything contains a spiritual essence.
Interestingly, ceremonial images typically In the center lies the square, known as the chauk, which is the house of the mother goddess Palaghate, the sacred source of life. This situates Mother Earth right at the core, surrounded by the hustle and bustle of daily activities. Mother Earth symbolizes fertility, beauty, justice, and altruism. These eternal principles, when placed at the center, harmonize and unite all aspects of human endeavor. This priority given to the sacred illustrates the Warli people’s understanding of life, which is not anthropocentric.
Another expression of unity commonly depicted in Warli art is the Sun, portrayed geometrically as a circle. All points on the circle’s circumference are united because they stem from a common source, the dimensionless center. Similarly, without the central Sun, life would not exist on Earth, which is just one planet in our solar system. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Sun is considered a spiritual symbol in many traditions. If this principle of unity is indeed a law of nature, what then prevents us from expressing it in our lives?
Perhaps what is needed is an individual In an effort to grasp hands and focus on what unites us, rather than what divides us, let us consciously turn towards the eternal principles we observe in nature. This is symbolically depicted in the scene of a ceremonial tarp dance; women and men dance, holding hands, forming an archetypal spiral, led by a dancer in the center. Each person dances individually, but they also dance together, as if to a unique melody of life, inwards. If we observe nature, it seems that each phenomenon occurs in such a cyclic spiral manner, from the seasons to our breath.
What is the purpose of such spiral-cyclic movement? The spiral is a geometric symbol indicating that the movement of life is not just repetition, but with each cycle repetition, experience and awareness can deepen, graphically represented by moving inwards, towards the center. The opportunity lies in our daily routine where we repeat the same actions every day. We can use it as an opportunity for learning and progress. …to engage in the same actions more meaningfully; to extract enriching experiences and with each humble step move closer to perfection.
Another commonly found geometric symbol is the triangle. Human figures are depicted as two triangles; one facing upwards, the other facing downwards. Such is the potential of the human being; one triangle is directed towards the celestial, with a grounding on earth, and the other is directed towards the earth, with a grounding in the heavens. The triangles meet. Perhaps this points to the meaning and purpose of this complex entity we call a human, which has always been seen as a fusion of the celestial and the earthly. It demonstrates the potential of humans to become a bridge between two realms; one must educate and tame their animalistic, earthly grounding in order to elevate themselves, while simultaneously reaching towards higher archetypes or noble ideas and expressing them in their worldly daily life. In doing so, they give meaning to their everyday existence.
The simple language of Warli art represents the c