Warli Painting: A Timeless Art That Speaks Through Simplicity

Remember the stick figures that featured the margins of our rough books during a particularly boring lecture? Guess what—those weren’t just lazily drawn sarcastic depictions, their origins go back to prehistoric times, when our ancestors used such simple stick-like figures to depict their lives and culture, possibly both as a pastime and as a means of recording history. How fascinating that the stick figures we now use in our modern societies for memes are the very origin of the art of sketching and doodling. They emerged in various regions throughout the world, uniting the prehistoric world population not through globalisation and social media but through shared similarities in art and expression.

Warli painting, when compared to stick figures, seems plenty ornamental, yet it is one of the most simple artforms of India, using only geometric shapes and lines to portray complex scenarios like weddings and tribal ceremonies. This artform is unique to the Maharashtrian Warli tribe—populating the Palghar and Thane districts, along with the southern tribal regions of Gujarat.

Warli Painting: A Tradition

The Warli tribe is one of the largest tribes of India, residing in the Northern Sahyadri Range of Maharashtra. We call the Warli art simple, yet when considered in context of its origin it appears as a much evolved artform. Warli art’s origins can be traced back to almost 3000 BCE, when the Indian subcontinent was in its Bronze Age. Undeniably, similarities were found between Warli art and the prehistoric cave paintings.

This knowledge in itself is enough to consider how great a feat it was to create art through geometrical figures at that point in time. Yet, when one realises that the materials they used to create Warli art were ingenious, one is all the more impressed by them. Have you ever wondered why most traditional Warli paintings have a reddish brown background? Why is predominantly only white paint used? Well, this all goes back to the villages where the house walls were made of red bricks or mud, creating a reddish background automatically. The white paint was made especially, by mixing rice flour and water with glue, giving it that stark white colour. There are also various other natural materials used for the Warli paintings’ background and the paint, like extracts from geru, turmeric, kumkum, leaves, charcoal and coloured flowers.

With these most basic yet innovative items, the tribal women paint the walls of their houses and narrate simplistic stories of cultural significance. They paint on the occasion of marriage, community gatherings, and religious festivals, depicting these events and inking them for posterity. In a way, we could look at this tradition as a form of visual journaling, or as a diary entry. Whenever a happening moment occurred in the family or community, women would take out their materials and paint their walls with the details of the events. To us, they simply look like human figures made from triangles and lines, when maybe the villagers might know exactly which person is depicted based on the positioning and style of depiction. This makes the art not only cultural, but also personal. It becomes a material and visual photograph, capturing a real, lived moment, until another one replaces it on the wall.

Warli Painting: A Recognized Continuation

Warli, for the most part of history, remained an art largely known only to its creators—the Warli tribe. At the present time, with all the technological advancement that has led to such connectivity, it seems bizarre to even consider an artform so beautiful confined to the geographical location of its origins. It was in the 1970s, when Jivya Soma Mashe, a uniquely gifted artist from childhood itself, popularized the artform by breaking the pattern of drawing only for rituals. He began painting in the Warli style everyday, for no special occasion but just as a practice. His skill and talent for these paintings was recognised not only on a national level, but even internationally. He has received multiple prestigious awards like the National Award (1976), Shilpa Guru Award (2002), Prince Claus Award (2009) and Padma Shree (2011). For those interested in learning the various techniques of Warli painting, Rooftop provides a Warli Course by the Mhase family of generational Warli artists. Learn this generational art from the family that pioneered it all.

His recognition led to unprecedented numbers of young men following suit, and Warli received a boom in contemporary art culture. It shifted slowly from walls to handmade paper, canvas and even cloth. It not only became known worldwide, but also became a trend with a rise in Warli home decor, Warli in fashion and Warli paintings as show pieces. Warli artists, who could never have imagined earning through this art which they considered only a part of tradition, now have been able to make a living out of it. The story of Warli art and its progress in the world of art is sensational, it acts as a testament to the fact that art can and does change lives, and that it can be a good way to make a living, one needs only to make the world see its value.

Your Journey to the World of Warli

If Warli art is something you want to try your hand at, the Rooftop App is a good place to start for it has various options. A one-day Warli on Earthen Pots Workshop for those curious and looking for a fun, creative activity, Guide books to take you through the relaxing strokes of Warli art step-by-step, and even Warli paintings on sale for those of you who’d like to enliven your house with a bit of Indian tribal culture. The best part about Warli is that it’s so aesthetically pleasing. It holds your eye, even with its unusual simplicity. There is an element of reality in it, even when it depicts humans as amalgamations of triangles and circles. An immediate sense of familiarity that comes from who knows where. Just something about them makes them perfect as wall decorations—indeed, they were traditionally wall decorations with a deeply cultural significance.