Sohrai Painting

Sohrai is a winter harvest festival and one of the most important festivals of Santhals in Jharkhand and West Bengal. It is mainly celebrated at the beginning of winter harvest, when the paddy has ripened, on the new moon day of the Bengali month of Kartik, coinciding with Diwali or Kali puja, in the month of October-November. In some regions, celebrations take place at the end of the winter harvesting mid-January (around the end of Bengali month Poush), after they have reaped and threshed their paddy. Santhals pay homage to their gods and their ancestors as a thanksgiving for their crops, their cattle, their ploughs, and everything that has helped them to attain the harvest. The name Sohrai is said to have derived from a paleolithic age word — soro, meaning to drive with a stick.
According to an ancient Santhal mythology, Marang Buru (God of mountain), Jaher ayo (Goddess of forest) and the elder sister of the santhals, would descend on earth from heaven to pay a visit to their brothers and to commemorate this event, the harvest festival is celebrated at this time and women decorate their walls with murals of sohrai arts.
The distinctive Sohrai art painted on the mud walls is a matriarchal tradition handed down from mother to daughter. These colourful paintings are done totally by using natural pigments mixed in mud — Kali matti, Charak matti, Dudhi matti, Lal matti (Geru), and Pila matti. Artists use datoon (teeth cleaning twig) or cloth swabs daubed in different earth colours to paint on the walls — bulls, horses with riders, wild animals, trees, lotuses, peacocks, and horned deities. Sohrai paintings are considered to be good luck paintings. (courtesy: Indrosphere)