Pithora (painting)

Pithora is a ritualistic painting done on the walls by the Rathwa and Bhilala tribes who live in central Madhya Pradesh. Pithora paintings are executed on three inner walls of their houses. These paintings have significance in their lives and executing the Pithora paintings in their homes brings peace, prosperity and happiness. There is never an attempt to imitate nature: a horse or a bull, which might be a vision of a god, impresses him with only one central quality.

A Pithora painting at the Crafts Museum in New Delhi

Pithora paintings are more of a ritual than an art form. These rituals are performed either to thank God or for a wish or a boon to be granted. The Bhadwa or the head priest of the tribe is summoned and the problems are narrated. These problems can vary from dying cattle, to unwell children in the family. The concerned person is given a solution and is asked, by the Bhadwa, to perform the ritual and the painting. The presence of Pithora Baba is considered as a solution to all the problems. A Pithora is always located at the threshold, or the Osari, outside the first front wall or inside on the walls of the first room as one enters a house. The painting usually floods the entire wall with figures. Three walls are prepared for the painting, the front wall and the two on either side of it. The front or central wall is very large, twice the size of each of the sidewalls. These walls are treated with two layers of cow dung paste and one layer of white chalk powder. Unmarried girls bring in these materials. This procedure is called Lipna. The main wall of the verandah that divides it from the kitchen is considered sacred to the Pithoro. The wall paintings related to the legends of creation and Pithoro, are done on this wall. The two sidewalls of the veranda are also painted with figures of minor deities, ghosts and ancestors.