Story Led Wall Art

Story Led — 5 museum-grade prints that set the mood. Khovar is the marriage and household wall art of Hazaribagh district, Jharkhand, combed by women of tribal and Kurmi communities using a sgraffito technique — a wet white kaolin slip over a dark base coat, combed and scratched away with a broken comb so the dark ground reads as line. The aripan (also called aripana or chowk) is the auspicious threshold floor drawing women lay at the door around harvest, Sohrai and weddings to welcome cattle, guests and fortune, often with a lit diya. Sohrai is a harvest-season wall art of Hazaribagh district, Jharkhand, painted by women of tribal and Kurmi communities in natural earth pigments — manganese black, hematite red, kaolin white and ochre yellow — on a daubed mud wall to welcome cattle home after the rice harvest, around Diwali. The akhra is the open village ground for dance, gathering and contest; archery is a deep-rooted Adivasi skill across Jharkhand, kept up at fairs and festivals and carried forward by the state's well-known archers.

Updated 22 Jun 2026