Muriya Painting

Meheru Netam from Chhattisgarh, who belongs to the Muria community, has painted next to the Warli panels and has sought inspiration from a different source. His primary influence seems to be the wrought iron strip figures of the metal (dhokra) workers of Chhattisgarh. His figures complement those of the Warli painter. He too has concentrated on public ceremonies, showing the many deities of the Muria pantheon and the ritual hunt that is an important feature in the sacred calendar of the tribal people of Central India.

But, even though Meheru Netam’s art is not part of a sacred tradition, it seems to carry traces of a mythic universe where tiny creatures, insects like centipedes and scorpions, fish and birds, walk the forest as do large animals like antelopes and tigers, which are sacred objects of the hunt. The space of the painting is a heterogeneous one, juxtaposing creatures that could never co-exist in the waking world