Folk Paintings or Paitkar or SCROLL PAINTING
These are one of the oldest tribal paintings in India and due to their appearance they are also called scroll paintings. Artisans from the Paitkar community use natural colour and vermillion to paint on soiled or used papers. The hair of a goat or the help of a needle is taken to apply the colour. The essence of these paintings is found in the Garuda Purana. Rapidly extincting community of folk painters of the state known as ?Paitkar‘ make scroll painting. Mainly they illustrate the primitive concept of “life after death”.
Jadopatia Paintings
These are generally practised by the Santhals in which the artisans make scrolls called Jado or Jadopatia and are drawn with natural inks and colours. They are used as visual aids in storytelling and are said to have magical and healing powers. They depict scenes of afterlife and the Santhal belief of tiger God etc.
Sohrai Art
This is generally practiced by the women of farming communities and is a rural art form called Sohrai. They are mural paintings depicting the harvest festival in autumn and are considered to bring good luck. They are painted with red, black, white and yellow earth and large images are painted on the walls with twigs and thin sticks depicting pictures of animals like bulls, horses, wild animals and horned deities.
Kohver Art
This is also practised by the women of the farming community depicting the marriage season. They are generally carried out in the walls of the bridal chamber and the walls of the wedding house. Designs are cut with fingers exposing black patterns on white or with bits of combs. Over an undercoat of black earth a layer of wet Dudhi mitti or cream coloured earth is painted. This technique of comb cutting is similar to the‘ Sgraffito‘ technique of Greece and the incised pottery technique found in Iran and the Indus valley. These paintings are considered to bring good luck.
It is a metal craft or brass work done by the Malhore caste and the artisans make use of the ? lost wax technique‘ by using resin, wax and firewood from the forests and clay from the riverbed and with the help of a firing oven in a hole dug in the ground they craft their artwork.
Ganju Art
This art is drawn in large murals with images of plants, birds and animals and sometimes endangered animals are depicted in the pictures in story tradition form.
Rana, Teli and Prajapati Art
This art is practised by the three sub castes using filigree work with plant and animal fertility forms using Pashupathi (Lord Shiva) representing the God of Animals and colourful floral motifs.
Kurmi Art
Lord Shiva or Pashupathi on the back of a bull is the horned deity depicted here and glyptic art is used to represent plants on the floors and walls of the Kurmi tribe. A wooden compass is used to etch the segmented lotus and drawings are scratched on the walls with nails.
Mundas Art
Plant forms of deities and unique motifs like the rainbow snake are painted on the wet, soft earth using fingers and the mud collected from rock art sites is lavender gray along with ochre mud.
Turi art
Natural earthy colours of floral and jungle based motifs are painted on the walls of the homes.
Birhor and Bhuiya Art
These depict mandalas or authentic graphic forms with stars, crescents, rectangles, concentric circles etc drawn with fingers.
Ghatwal art
They depict paintings of animals along with their dwellings in the forest.
CHHOU MASK
The mask made of Papier machei in Singhbhum has its own significance. Paper machei of Kashmir is famous for house wares and decorative items with delicate painting and papier machei of Madras is well known for large size sculpted images. The papier machei of Saraikela and Charinda is popular for the mask for Chhou Dance. The methods and materials are separate from each
other.WOODEN WORK
The Jharkhand region was also known as Jungle Mahal because of its dense forest which is inherent. The forest is rich with quality wood and the wood is used for producing the equipment required in housing, farming, fishing etc. for survival. The artisans of some villages went a step ahead and have explored creativity as well in their art, like beautifully decorative door panels, toys, boxes, and other household articles. Chhuthar, the carpenter community is engaged in this trade. Others are also skilled in this trade.