CraftsHeritageKhajurahoRun informationRunning

Gond Painted Souvenir – GHR Khajuraho 2017 Medals

All runners at GHR Khajuraho will receive this beautiful Gond painted souvenir finisher medal – sign up for the run here – link.

Gond is the largest tribe in India with a population of about 7.4 million. Gond tribes inhabit several states, prominently, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. They are the original inhabitants of central India and have a glorious history of empires and victories. The tribal households are decorated with paintings as the people invest their spare time in such creative activities and hobbies. They are also a part of religious festivities and social events like marriages and so forth. Many a time the paintings symbolize supernatural entities and deities in the form of trees and animals. The common themes for tribal paintings are: Mythological stories depicted in epics like the Ramayana or Mahabharata, nature in the form of forests, agricultural fields, domestic as well as wild animals and some significant events in the life of the painter like marriage, a certain festival or death, etc.

gond-painting-medal-go-heritage-run-khajuraho-2The major change that has occurred is that earlier the paintings used to be only on the walls of houses and therefore they were not saleable. At the most, an art collector could take their photograph to use as an exhibit. Now due to the introduction of canvas and chart paper as well as acrylic colors, these paintings can be sold and transported to the buyer’s address. The demand for these paintings is on the rise and this is evident from the fact that every year a few more rural artisans join those based in cities like Bhopal, creating the paintings on canvas and chart paper, and several utility products.

The medals for Go Heritage Run – Khajuraho are being created by artists – Kaushal Prasad Pekan and Kailash Pradhan.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.