Gond Art- Painting that embeds nature as their soul
Gond Art is an old traditional art made by Gond Tribes. Although the art is very old yet it has evolved as more contemporary art with new styles and emerging artists.
Gond tribes are the largest tribes of India mainly found in states of the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and, Maharashtra. Although Modern Gond Art is concentrated in central India specially the Dindori region.
Gond name comes from the word ‘Kond’, which means green mountains in the Dravidian idiom.
Gond tribes are very closely connected to nature and for centuries lived in deep forests. They have their unique traditions and culture which is still can be found in their native villages. This association with nature, culture and rituals can be seen in all their paintings. It seems that the paintings have their soul in nature, animals, birds, forest and water bodies.
Within the Gond community, it is the Pardhan Gond sub-group who have traditionally carried this art forward — first on the walls of their own homes, later on canvas and paper for the wider world to see. For the bigger picture — how Gond fits alongside India’s other traditions — see our complete guide to Indian tribal art.
History and Origin of Gond Art
Gond art history is as old as Gond people i.e is more than 1400 years. Gond People believe seeing a beautiful image is auspicious and brings good luck. For a long time they have been painting their mud houses and walls with beautiful paintings of their rituals, motifs, and surroundings. If you still want to see these paintings you can visit Patangarh village in Dindori district where all houses are having beautiful wall paintings.
Initially, they use to paint using natural colours; yellow colour from chui mitti (local sand), deep red from the tree, black colour from charcoal and green was made from cow dung. Currently all artist uses acrylic colours for painting. In Gond community Pradhan are the one who are expert in wall painting, interestingly they are very good in dancing and singing to
From Mud Walls to Canvas: Digna and Bhittichitra
Long before Gond art appeared on canvas, it lived on the walls and floors of Pardhan Gond homes in two closely related forms.
Digna is the geometric pattern work — dots, lines and repeating shapes — traditionally applied to walls, floors and doorways using a mix of mud, cow dung and husk gathered from riverbanks near the village. Different local soils produced different colours: yellow ochre from clay near Amarkantak, white from lime, and reds and blacks from other local mud sources. Pardhan Gond women created digna to mark seasons, festivals and rituals, refreshing the patterns through the year. Durga Bai Vyam — one of the artists who later carried Gond painting onto canvas — has said she learned digna from her mother from the age of six.
Bhittichitra (sometimes written bhittichrita) is the wall art itself: paintings of animals, plants and trees applied directly to the mud walls of the home, recording the community’s relationship with the forest around it. Bhittichitra is the direct root of the painting style now sold as canvas art today. Same subjects, same eye for pattern, moved onto a new surface.
The dots and fine lines filling every figure in a modern Gond painting are the technique itself, not decorative flourish. They’re carried over from mud-and-cow-dung wall art still practised in villages like Patangarh today.
In the early 1980’s Bharat Bhawan was established in Bhopal by the central government to promote various art forms. J Swaminathan who was leading this organisation looked for various tribal art forms. In rural Dindori they found beautiful wall art of young 17-year-old Jangarh Shyam.
Jangarh Shyam and other artists were invited to Bhopal to try modern mediums of art.
Sambhav Singh Shyam, son of Anand Singh Shyam who was among the first to visit Bharat Bhawan recalls and speaks
‘Jangarh Shyam and my father were provided with brown book covers to showcase their art as the canvas were too expensive.”
Jangarh Shyam adapted well with canvas, brushes and acrylic paints. His exceptional skills and beautiful use of bright colours made him highly popular and gave new heights to gond art.
With the rising popularity of Jangarh Shyam many more artist from his village have taken gond art as full-time job
The style Jangarh Singh Shyam pioneered — bright acrylic colour combined with the fine dot-and-line patterning of digna and bhittichitra — is now known as Jangarh Kalam, “Jangarh’s style,” and remains the basis of the Gond painting sold today.
Contemporary Gond Artists Carrying the Tradition Forward
Gond painting did not stop with Jangarh Singh Shyam. Several artists who trained alongside him, or were mentored by him directly, have gone on to build their own recognised bodies of work.
Bhajju Shyam, a Pardhan Gond artist from Patangarh, is best known outside India for The London Jungle Book — a visual account of his first trip to London, told entirely through Gond-style animal imagery, published by Tara Books. He is a Padma Shri awardee.
Venkat Raman Singh Shyam is Jangarh Singh Shyam’s nephew. Jangarh discovered his talent in 1983 and brought him to Bhopal to paint. After Jangarh’s death in 2001, Venkat committed to painting full-time, expanding from traditional subject matter into more abstract, contemporary themes while keeping the dot-and-line technique at the centre of his work. He received Madhya Pradesh’s Rajya Hasta Shilpa Puraskar in 2002.
Durga Bai Vyam, from Burbaspur in Mandla district, learned digna from her mother before moving into painting. She co-illustrated The Night Life of Trees with Bhajju Shyam and Ram Singh Urveti — winner of the BolognaRagazzi Award in Italy in 2008, one of the most recognised prizes in children’s book illustration. Jangarh Singh Shyam himself encouraged her to begin exhibiting.
If you’d like to see this animal-and-nature style for yourself, Angry Tiger by Anita Vyam is one example currently in our collection.
Gond Paintings themes, motifs, and subjects
Gond tribes are highly interlinked with nature and this appears in their paintings too. These are the few themes and subjects which are commonly found in Gond paintings–
1. Gond artists love to draw animals specifically which can be found in forests of central India such as Deer, birds, Peacocks, Mythical beasts, lions. Fishes, turtles, snakes, cows, elephants, and many more.
2. Mahua tree is considered holy in the Gond community and it is called “Tree of Life”. Mahua trees, fruits, seeds, and leaves are used for many purposes by this tribal community. Mahua appears in a lot of paintings of Gond. You can find paintings of women collecting Mahua fruits or praying very widely.
3. With time Gond art is evolving and you can find modern painting showcasing airplanes, bicycles, cars, technology, etc.
4. A lot of mythological stories are there in the Gond community. Myths, legends, rituals, festivals, and other aspects of daily life can be seen in Paintings
5. Hindu gods such as Lord Shiva also known as Bada Dev, Lord Krishna, Lord Ganesha, etc.
6. Local deities like Phulvari Devi (Goddess Kali), Jalharin Devi (River Goddess), Marahi Devi, etc.
7. Folktales- Folktales are the best part of gond painting, folk tales add a story to the paintings which makes them unique.
Gond Painting Signature Patterns & Styles
A pattern is a decorative design that is repeated several times to fill an image.
Each Gond artist uses his distinctive pattern and style to fill the images. These distinctive patterns are called signature patterns.
Style signature of Gond Artist:
Every gond artist have a unique style signature they use in their paintings, these style signature are used in collage to make a complete picture such as
- Dots
- Fine Lines
- Curved Lines
- Dashes
- Fish Scales
- Drops of Water
- Seed Shapes
- Geometrical Shapes, etc.
Gond Art's GI Tag Recognition
In April 2023, Gond painting from Madhya Pradesh was awarded a Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Indian government. The registration — Application No. 701, filed under the Handicraft class with India’s Geographical Indications Registry — names it “Gond Painting of Madhya Pradesh.” A GI tag formally protects the name “Gond painting” for authentic work connected to this tradition and region, official recognition of what Gond communities have known for generations.
For buyers, that protection has a practical side. As Gond-style art has grown popular, mass-produced imitations have followed. When you buy an authentic, artist-attributed Gond painting, you’re supporting the real tradition the GI tag now protects, and a real artist’s livelihood.
Browse our collection of authentic, artist-attributed Gond paintings →
Museum & Institutional Recognition
Gond painting’s recognition extends beyond India. The Victoria and Albert Museum in London holds five original ink drawings by Jangarh Singh Shyam, dated 1989, catalogued under its South & South East Asia Collection as contemporary tribal art. They were acquired not long after Jangarh Singh Shyam began exhibiting internationally, and remain part of the V&A’s permanent collection today.
How to Spot an Authentic Gond Art Piece
With Gond art’s popularity — and now its GI protection — comes a rise in mass-produced imitations sold as “tribal style” decor. A few things to check before you buy:
- Hand-applied dot-and-line texture that varies slightly across the piece. Genuine work has small natural inconsistencies in the dots, dashes, and fine lines — mass-printed imitations look mechanically uniform.
- A named artist or family workshop. Authentic Gond paintings are attributed to a specific artist or family, not sold as anonymous “tribal-style decor.”
- Rich, layered colour with visible brushwork, rather than flat, printed colour blocks.
- A seller who can tell you where the piece came from — which artist, which region, and how it reached them.
If a Gond painting is being sold without any of this information, that’s worth asking about before you buy.
Two examples from our own collection that meet these criteria: Tree of Life by Budhwariya Bai Vyam, and Bada Dev by Vijay Kumar Shyam, both attributed by name and both with an authenticity certificate included.
FAQ
What is Gond art and where does it come from?
Gond art is a painting tradition of the Gond — particularly the Pardhan Gond — community of central India, rooted in Madhya Pradesh, especially Dindori district and the village of Patangarh. It grew out of digna (wall and floor patterning) and bhittichitra (wall painting), and moved onto canvas and paper in the 1980s.
What do Digna and Bhittichitra have to do with Gond painting?
They’re the two traditional practices Gond painting comes from — digna the geometric dot-and-line patterning, bhittichitra the wall paintings of animals and plants. The dots and fine lines filling every figure in a modern Gond painting are carried over directly from digna.
How can you tell if a Gond painting is authentic?
Look for hand-applied dot-and-line texture with small natural inconsistencies, a named artist or family workshop rather than anonymous “tribal-style” branding, visible brushwork rather than flat printed colour, and a seller who can tell you which artist made it and where it came from.
Does Gond painting have GI (Geographical Indication) status?
Yes. “Gond Painting of Madhya Pradesh” was registered with India’s Geographical Indications Registry (Application No. 701, Handicraft class) and publicly recognised in April 2023, formally protecting the name for authentic work connected to the tradition and region.
Who are some well-known contemporary Gond artists?
Jangarh Singh Shyam is considered the founder of the modern (canvas) Gond painting movement, in the style now called Jangarh Kalam. Others from the same tradition include Bhajju Shyam (The London Jungle Book), Venkat Raman Singh Shyam (Jangarh’s nephew), and Durga Bai Vyam (The Night Life of Trees).
Long before Gond art appeared on canvas, it lived on the walls and floors of Pardhan Gond homes in two closely related forms.
Digna is the geometric pattern work — dots, lines and repeating shapes — traditionally applied to walls, floors and doorways using a mix of mud, cow dung and husk gathered from riverbanks near the village. Different local soils produced different colours: yellow ochre from clay near Amarkantak, white from lime, and reds and blacks from other local mud sources. Pardhan Gond women created digna to mark seasons, festivals and rituals, refreshing the patterns through the year. Durga Bai Vyam — one of the artists who later carried Gond painting onto canvas — has said she learned digna from her mother from the age of six.
Bhittichitra (sometimes written bhittichrita) is the wall art itself: paintings of animals, plants and trees applied directly to the mud walls of the home, recording the community’s relationship with the forest around it. Bhittichitra is the direct root of the painting style now sold as canvas art today. Same subjects, same eye for pattern, moved onto a new surface.
The dots and fine lines filling every figure in a modern Gond painting are the technique itself, not decorative flourish. They’re carried over from mud-and-cow-dung wall art still practised in villages like Patangarh today.
Amazing detailed article. Wish to visit Patangarh some time in future. Also excellent collection of paintings. Keep supporting tribal artists
Visitor Rating: 5 Stars
Very informative. Thank you for becoming the bride and lens for us to the world of Indian tribes. This arctic was very enriching.
Amazing details
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