Description

An intricately painted greeting card, painted in the Saura tribal style of Orissa on tassar silk, mounted on handmade paper

History

The Saura tribes of Orissa have a glorious past. The Saura tribe i.e. Sauras or Savaras have been mentioned in Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. Savari's devotion to Rama in Ramayana is part of the folk lore of India. In Mahabharata, Jara Savara pierces an arrow to Krisna and kills him. The people of the Saura tribe traditionally drew ritualistic pictographs on the inside walls of their mud houses called 'italons'. These pictographs were made for various reasons – to avoid disease, preserve crops, honor the dead of the tribe, and promote fertility. In recent times, the Saura artists have started using hand-made paper and cloth as the medium for their paintings.

Skills

The artist needs excellent skills to make these paintings since the work on these paintings is fairly elaborate. Saora paintings are geometric in style, but with a fishing net-like approach within larger characters. These are different from the Warli tribe paintings where the insides of characters do not have the Saura net-like approach. The Warli figures are also more linear compared with the Saura figures.

Aesthetics

Neatly painted little figures in the Saura tribal style give this card a special charm. The beauty lies in the symmetry and black figures contrasting well with the natural off white of tassar and the bright red background.

Material

Hand painted on tassar silk mounted on handmade paper. Fabric colors have been used for the hand painted areas.

Care