Encyclopedia of Indian Folklore
Folk art in villages of India has existed since time immemorial. Through oral traditions, it transmits knowledge across generations without a writing system. It allows people to give meaning to their lives and their surroundings. Oral tradition is the first form of human communication where in knowledge and ideas are received and transmitted orally from one generation to another. These are transmitted through speech or song and include art, rock art, ceramics, paintings and so on. Over centuries it is preserving cultural traditions alive in the form of rituals, folk songs and painting is great and unique.
The dominant feature of folk art is its involvement with religion. Its role has been essentially to convey in visual form the great tradition of mythology and epics which lies at the village level. It did not always express a mere set of religious ideas or values. The process involved a whole set of beliefs and practices relating to life and death. Its role has been essentially to convey in a visual form, the great tradition of mythology and epics, which lies at the village level. It contains within it a magic connotation where a viewer looked at these as if meditating and experiencing the incomprehensible.
Traditional art is a huge store house where ritual and myth, magic and religion, motif and symbols provide the artist with powerful expression of narration. This art was executed in a wide range of styles with multiple themes in a symphony of colours. It is enriched with a variety of dresses and ornaments, local variations of myths and even Hindu religion and local deities.
The style of folk paintings varies from province to province, district to district and even village to village. Village artists have been the main mainstay of all traditional schools of Indian paintings. In traditional Indian society there was no distinction between artisan and artist. The hereditary nature of their occupation being mainly responsible for the continuity of tradition. Folk painting in India was executed in a wide range of styles with a religious theme based on primarily on Hinduism and other local stories. It enriched with variety of dresses ornaments, local variations of myths and even local deities. Patterns and forms were repeated with minor variations. It went from father to son. Its repetitive nature is mainly responsible for the continuity of a particular style till today.
Our history says that sanctuaries of religious art and literature had sprung into existence in villages from earliest times, when religious teachers, poets, painters, musicians and epic performers sought refuge in the countryside. These sanctuaries made possible the survival of archaic myths and history and folk art rich and colourful. Historic development of professional village craftsmanship like its content and tends, towards classical art.
Indian cultural heritage has been the product of two streams of thought and practices – first is folk traditions that belong to the oral traditions operate at folk levels, secondly those that belong to sophisticated literary traditions. Though these two thoughts are interdependent yet the roots of the higher traditions lie in the little traditions.
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