गोंड चित्रकला (Gond Chitrakala)
Gond painting is a living visual tradition of the Gond tribal people — one of India's largest Adivasi (indigenous) communities, centered in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Maharashtra. Originally a form of ritual wall and floor painting (particularly around doors and hearths to invite good spirits), the tradition was transformed into a portable paper and canvas medium in the 1980s through the catalytic intervention of artist and curator J. Swaminathan, who introduced Jangarh Singh Shyam of Patangarh village to paper and paint. Gond painting is defined by a characteristic patterning system: forms (animals, trees, deities, mythological narratives) are filled not with flat color but with intricate fields of dots, dashes, lines, and geometric repetition — each fill pattern carrying its own name and meaning in the Gond visual vocabulary. The tradition is now commercially significant and internationally collected.
Risk level: Endangered · Not inscribed
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A ritual art of Meena women in the Sawai Madhopur and Hadoti regions of Rajasthan.
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