Warli Tribal Wall Painting of Palghar Maharashtra

Warli painting is a tribal art tradition of the Warli people of Palghar and Dahanu districts in Maharashtra, using white rice paste on mud-coated walls to depict ceremonial and agricultural scenes. The style uses simple geometric figures — circles (sun, moon), triangles (mountains, bodies), and squares (sacred enclosure) — arranged in narrative compositions. The central motif is the tarpa dance, a circle of human figures around a musician. Traditional Warli painting was made exclusively for weddings and agricultural rituals. In the 1970s, artist Jivya Soma Mashe began adapting Warli painting to paper and canvas for the urban art market. Today Warli is produced for galleries, interior decoration, and export. Women paint the ritual murals while men have historically done the adapted commercial form, though this division is changing. Warli painting received GI certification. The Warli artists association manages cooperative production and export.