Handmade Tribal Soura Paintings

Souras are the most ancient tribal community of India, finding a mention in the Hindu epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Saura tribal painting is a style of wall mural paintings associated with the Saura tribals of the state of Odisha in India. These paintings, also called ikons (or ekons) are visually similar to Warli paintings and hold religious significance for the Sauras. People, horses, elephants, the sun and the moon and the tree of life are recurring motifs in these ikons. Saura paintings employ a fish-net approach, where the border is created first, and then the motifs close inwards. Warli paintings use conjoint triangles to depict the human body while the figures are not as sharply delineated in Saura paintings. Also, unlike the Warli paintings where male and female icons are clearly distinguishable, in Saura art, there is no such physical differentiation. This makes them different from Warli paintings of Maharashtra to which Saura paintings are often compared. The paintings' backdrop is prepared from red or yellow ochre earth which is then painted over using brushes fashioned from tender Bamboo shoots. Ekons use natural dyes and chromes derived from ground white stone, hued earth, and vermilion and mixtures of tamarind seed, flower and leaf extracts.