Bhil Art – How A Tribe Uses Dots To Make Their Story Come Alive
ART WISE
June 05, 2017by Amorette Lyngwa
It is often said that to know the art form of a particular place, is to know the place itself. If that is true, then to look at Bhil Art, is to enter the Bhil painting house of the artists themselves; to experience firsthand, this intimate art form from Central India.
The Bhils are the second largest tribal community in India, residing in Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. Some Bhils trace their ancestry to Eklavya, the archer from Mahabharata, while some scholars even believe that Valmiki, who authored Ramayana, was a Bhil.
Traditionally, the art of the Bhil folk would adorn the clay walls of their village homes. Beautiful images would be painted with neem sticks and other twigs, and natural dyes would be used. Turmeric, flour, vegetables, leaves and oil were used to derive brilliant colours to make fascinating frescoes on floors and walls, in a language created by the Bhils, to convey their experiences.
(A Bhil artist stands against an entire wall painted with Bhil motifs; Image Source – bhilart.com)
Of Dots and Colours
One look at a Bhil painting, and you’ll immediately begin to recognize it anywhere you see the art form. Bhil paintings usually consist of large, un-lifelike shapes of everyday characters filled in with earthy, yet bright colours, and then covered with an overlay of uniform dots in several patterns and colours that stand out strikingly against the background.
The dots on a Bhil painting are not random. They are patterns that could be made to represent anything that the artists wish to, from ancestors to deities. Because these patterns are solely in the hands of the artists who create them, the work of every Bhil artist is unique, and the dot patterns can be counted as the artist’s signature style.
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