The Warli, the Painters of the Konkan Hills

In the hills and coastal plains where Maharashtra meets Gujarat, north of the great city of Mumbai, live the Warli, an Adivasi people known throughout the world for their painting. In simple white figures on earthen walls, the Warli depict their whole world, the village and the harvest, the tarpa dance and the sacred marriage, in one of the most celebrated tribal art forms of India.

Cultivators and forest-dwellers bound to the earth and the monsoon, worshippers of the mother goddess and the tiger god Waghoba, the Warli have preserved a distinctive culture of ritual, festival, and art close to one of India’s largest cities. This article traces their origins, language, homeland, society, religion, and traditions, and the world-famous painting that has carried their name across the globe.