Narrative Wall Art

Narrative — 36 museum-grade prints that set the mood. Aipan is the ritual floor- and wall-art of the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, made traditionally by Kumaoni women with white rice-paste (biswar) drawn by fingertip onto a geru — red-ochre earth — ground. The Bagwal is an old stone-throwing fair held at the Varahi (Maa Barahi) temple at Devidhura in Champawat district, in which two groups pelt each other — now largely with flowers and fruit — until the priest calls a halt; it is one of Kumaon's best-known living fairs. Cheriyal scrolls come from Cheriyal village in Telangana's Siddipet district, painted for generations by the Nakashi artist community. They were long narrative cloth scrolls unrolled episode by episode by travelling balladeer-storytellers — the kaki padagollu and allied story-telling castes — who sang the epics and caste-origin legends to village audiences through the night. Komaram Bheem (1900–1940) was a Gond adivasi leader of Adilabad who fought the Asaf Jahi rule of Hyderabad for tribal land rights under the slogan 'Jal, Jangal, Zameen' (water, forest, land). His story was carried village to village by balladeer-storytellers — exactly the role the Nakashi scroll-painters of Cheriyal served, painting long cloth scrolls that travelling bards unrolled episode by episode to recite epics and community histories.

Updated 22 Jun 2026