Rural Women Artists: A Visual Analysis of the Mural Art Forms of Santhal Pargana, Jharkhand, India

Women are the pioneers of traditional mural art practices in rural India. Warli art, Gond art, and Madhubani paintings are examples of their artworks. The women belonging to the Santhal region in eastern India, are highly skilled in rich rural vernacular art. Murals are generally created by them during local festivals and marriage ceremonies. The women of six districts that comprise the Santhal Pargana (Dumka, Godda, Deoghar, Jamtara, Pakur and Sahibganj), decorate their mud houses during these occasions with visual borders and motifs. A pilot study was carried out with the women artists to research these murals. The framework for the visual analysis is based on distinct symmetry operations such as translation, rotation, reflection, and glide reflection. This paper examines the various artistic expressions of the rural women of Santhal Pargana