Pithora Painting

Murals covered the interior of the farmhouse

We took a short drive just to the north of Chhota to find some pithora paintings.

Off a side road we walked to a farmhouse to meet a farmer who paints in the afternoon. Man Singh had painted a mural in the Chhota Udaipur museum and had decorated the interior of his house – a basic mud-floored building – with colourful pictures of trains, galloping horses, guns, birds and animals, processions, and farm activity.

The paintings contain elements drawn from oral history, tribal legends and fantasy; silhouettes of galloping horses, birds and animals, people, village life, hills and landscape.

Man Singh at work on the wall of his barn

He sold us a painting outside for 3,000 rupees; a more colourful one was cheaper but far too large to bring home.