Artventures of Baiga - Expert

Artventures of Baiga: Expert is the last book in the series and the only one with a dictionary in it. Two pages of patterns and two pages of motifs, catalogued: Chora Devi, Ganesh Ji, Mahua Devi and Bada Dev; four human figure types; temple, sun, incense sticks and flag; the Saja, Mahua, Kullu and Palash trees with four leaf forms; elephant, deer, peacock, monkey, parrot, bear, sparrow, porcupine, tiger, cow, tortoise, snake, fish, scorpion and crab; and the weapons, shield, spear, mace, bow and sickle. Everything needed to build a composition without inventing shapes.

The history section covers ground the other two books leave out. Baiga painting lived on walls until the late Shri Ashish Swami, a fine artist trained at Kala Bhavan in Shantiniketan, came across it in Lorha village in Umaria district. He trained more than thirty women there. Jodhaiya Bai Baiga was among the first to paint on paper, starting in 2008 at the age of sixty-nine, and she received the Nari Shakti Puraskar in 2022 and the Padma Shri in 2023.

Baiga legend credits the art form to the goddess Mavai, who came down to teach the community to make designs from clay, leaves and plant dyes. Separate sections cover Mahua Devi and the Mahua tree, whose flowers are gathered in season and made into a drink shared at every important festival; Bada Dev and the rituals performed before planting and harvest; and the Ojhas and Badnins who tattoo Baiga women, working with soot mixed with water and passing the designs down orally from mother to daughter. Six animals get individual entries explaining what each means in Baiga work: deer, bear, tiger, elephant, peacock and snakes.

A contemporary outlook section takes on the harder question of what happens to the form under urbanisation. Fewer young Baiga take the tattoos. Artists have moved to canvas and acrylics. The book treats both as adaptation rather than loss and says why.

The practice sections are the hardest in the series. Eight full-page reference paintings for study. Four advanced pattern exercises. Nine advanced motif pages covering trees, three levels of deity motifs, humans, reptiles, land animals and two pages of aquatic ones. Then compositions: recreate Whispering Woods and Joyous Jungles from reference, trace and colour a deer-and-snake scene around a Mahua tree, complete a Kali sketch with tattoo designs, finish the missing half of a paired peacock, and choose an episode from the Ramayana and stage it in Baiga style.

Creative exploration goes fully open. Build a Baiga cosmos with sun, moon and constellations. Invent forest guardians from animal, tree and spirit elements. Reimagine your own favourite festival. Illustrate a Baiga folktale. Draw a Baiga treehouse. The book closes with a trivia section: spot the difference, a word search, and a twenty-clue riddle hunt, with answer keys.