कला और शिल्प परंपरा

Gaur danceजनजातीय

Men in gaur-horn headdresses move in a slow driving circle to a bank of drums while women dance in a line inside it with iron staves struck on the ground. The step is short and heavy because the headdress cannot be jolted, and the horn is the community's public identifier at every fair in the region.

कौन करता है: Dandami Maria (Bison-horn Maria), Dantewada and Bijapur. मौका: Madai fairs, marriages, Dussehra

Hulkiजनजातीय

A ring dance of alternating young men and women moving anticlockwise to the mandar drum, with sung call-and-response verses. Named for the swinging half-step that carries it.

कौन करता है: Muria, in and around the ghotul. मौका: Evening gatherings and festivals

Karsanaजनजातीय

A faster paired dance with a stamped rhythm, sung by the dancers rather than by a separate chorus. Elwin recorded Hulki and Karsana as the two forms every ghotul member was expected to know.

कौन करता है: Muria. मौका: Ghotul evenings, harvest

Gediलोक

Danced on bamboo stilts to a drum, in monsoon months when the village ground is flooded and the stilts are practical footwear before they are a performance. Competitive by nature, and now a fixture of school and state functions.

कौन करता है: Muria and Bhatra boys. मौका: Hareli and the monsoon weeks

Kaksarअनुष्ठान

A pre-sowing dance in which young men in bells and women in beads circle to a long drum, performed to secure the season's crop. It is a work-calendar ritual, and its timing is set by the village priest.

कौन करता है: Abujhmaria. मौका: Before sowing, at Kaksar Deo's shrine

Mandriजनजातीय

A drum-led processional danced as a village enters a Madai ground, with the drums setting the tempo for a line that grows as it goes.

कौन करता है: Muria and Maria. मौका: Madai fairs

Dhankul

A single-string musical bow played over an inverted earthen pot as resonator, struck with a small arrow. Played by women, and used almost exclusively to accompany the night-long Jagar epics — the instrument and the repertoire are inseparable.

Mandar, nishan and dhol

The percussion bank that carries every dance here — a barrel drum played with both hands, a large kettle drum struck with sticks and slung from the shoulder, and a double-headed dhol. Melody instruments are rare; the tune is carried by the voice.

Mohri and tirduddi

A reed shawm used at processions and weddings, and a small bowed lute used for solo song. Both are played by specialist households rather than by anyone in the village.

Relo

The Gondi song form — a short verse with a fixed refrain, sung antiphonally by two lines of dancers and extended for as long as the dance lasts. The refrain word "relo" is the form's name and its hinge.

Jagar

Night-long sung narration of an epic by a lead singer with a dhankul and a responding chorus, running from dusk to dawn over several nights. It is Bastar's narrative theatre — no stage, no costume, and the audience seated on the same floor. Pandwani, the Mahabharata recitation with the tambura, belongs to the Chhattisgarh plains to the north and is not a Bastar form.

Madai processional

Not theatre in the proscenium sense, but the region's largest performed event — the village deity carried out on a palanquin or an angadev of bound wood, met and escorted by drums and dancers from every settlement that owes it a visit.

Bastar Dhokra जीआई पंजीकृत Kondagaon, Jagdalpur

Cast by the Ghadwa community, historically for ritual objects — measuring bowls, lamps, deity figures, anklets — and now largely for sale. The wound-thread modelling is what gives Bastar work its corded surface and distinguishes it from the smoother Bengal and Odisha lost-wax traditions. Registered as a geographical indication in 2008, with a separate logo registration in 2014.

सामग्री: Bell metal — brass and bronze scrap, beeswax, clay, rice husk. तकनीक: Lost-wax casting. The core is modelled in clay, wound over with hand-rolled wax threads, coated in fine clay and then coarse clay, fired so the wax runs out, and filled with molten metal. Breaking out the casting destroys the mould, so no two pieces can be identical.

Bastar Iron Craft जीआई पंजीकृत Kondagaon, Bhanpuri, Narayanpur

Traditionally lamps, ritual tridents, agricultural blades and shrine figures; since the mid twentieth century also large decorative panels and furniture. Registered as a geographical indication in 2008.

सामग्री: Wrought iron, worked hot from bar and sheet. तकनीक: The Lohar smith heats a single rod, flattens, splits and cuts it at the anvil, and assembles figures by riveting and twisting rather than by casting or welding. The hammer marks are left visible.

Bastar Wooden Craft जीआई पंजीकृत Jagdalpur, Kondagaon, Narayanpur

Memorial pillars, house posts, ceremonial doors, deity figures and the carved combs young men made as courtship gifts. Practised by Bhatra and Badhai carpenter households. Registered as a geographical indication in 2008.

सामग्री: Sagon (teak), shivna, dhudhi and other local timbers. तकनीक: Carving from the solid with adze and chisel, with no joinery and no lamination — a pillar, a door frame or a figure is one piece of wood. Surfaces are left unpainted and finished with oil.

Bastar terracotta जीआई योग्य Nagarnar, Kondagaon

Votive horses, elephants, snakes and Nandis, made to a commission when a vow is fulfilled and left standing at the village shrine to weather. Nagarnar's potters are the best-known makers. The figures are not intended to last, which is why the shrine yards accumulate them in layers.

सामग्री: River clay, rice husk temper. तकनीक: Coil and slab building rather than throwing for the large pieces, fired in an open pit or a low kiln with husk and dung.

Bell and gong metalwork Kondagaon, Jagdalpur

Cattle bells, dance bells and small gongs — a working trade that shares smiths and scrap supply with the Dhokra casters and is rarely counted separately from them.

सामग्री: Bell metal. तकनीक: Sheet raised and riveted, or cast, then tuned by hammering.

Bamboo and siyadi fibre work Across the region

Grain bins, fish traps, winnowing fans, umbrellas and the leaf-cups that every haat serves food in. The leaf-cup is the region's disposable plate and is stitched fresh each market day.

सामग्री: Bamboo, siyadi and sisal fibre, palm leaf. तकनीक: Splitting, coiling and plaiting.

Kosa silk weaving Kondagaon, Jagdalpur

A forest-based sericulture rather than a farmed one — the cocoons are gathered from wild host trees. The state's Kosa geographical indication sits with Champa, not with Bastar.

सामग्री: Tussar cocoons reared on sal, saja and arjun. तकनीक: Hand reeling from open-forest cocoons, pit-loom weaving, mostly undyed.