Santal women, in preparation for their annual harvest festival, Sohrai, decorate their mud walls with the most wondrous designs, both traditional and contemporary.  The compositions vary from elaborate and ornate to simple, quick motifs executed with sure, effortless sweeps and strokes on the off white clay surfaces of their walls. Their wall art is part and parcel of their lives and the women are quite nonchalant  about the remarkable results of their effortless dexterity. 32 year old Kalpona Hansda of Joradih village is a woman whose creative energy left us spellbound when we visited Purulia in early 2017. 

Kalpona learnt from her mother, Sitala and has been decorating the walls of her home since she was in class X. Though most Santal women today find themselves unable to devote as much time to wall decoration as they could in the past, Kalpona is firmly of the opinion that it is individual artistic zeal that is the determining factor and women truly committed to their wall art will always find the time, irrespective of their other commitments in their homes and on their fields. She herself finds time to elaborately decorate her walls each year, even though she works with the Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) in nearby villages, a programme which provides food, preschool education, and primary healthcare to children under 6 years of age and their mothers. 

The extremely talented Kalpona excels in both bas relief work as well as the traditional “finger painting” style. Though the bas relief work on her walls were made at the time when the house  was constructed, Kalpona applies colour on the relief sculptures each year and paints designs on her walls as well. However, Santals refrain from decorating their walls when there is a death in the family, and Kalpona , out of respect for a recently deceased relative, refrained from colouring her relief work or embellishing her walls. She however painted a neighbour’s wall with the most magnificent  designs. Kalpona follows the traditional monochromatic style that can be seen all over North Purulia, tracing intricate, rhythmic patterns with her fingers on off white poli mati that is layered over dung coated mud walls. 

Sohrai will be celebrated later this month in her village and Kalpona will be busy ornamenting her walls soon. She also looks forward to opportunities that will enable her to showcase her prowess in urban spaces.