Ganesha’s Folk Dances
I was inspired by various Tamilian folk dances to illustrate this piece.
Even though a lot of other deities like Nataraja or Krishna are also known for dance, none of them would quite look the same in costumes different from what we’re accustomed to seeing them in.
Ganesha being one of the most playful of the Indian deities seemed a perfect fit for the theme of various dances while retaining his own iconic look.
As with most of my group pieces, this started off with just one, the Karagattam or pot dance. Right after I finished it, I became curious about other folk dance forms and started reading up about them.
This led me to the Poikaal kudirai (false horse dance), Silambattam (staff dance), Kavadi (burden dance), Mayilattam (peacock dance), Oyilattam (cloth dance) and lastly my favorite of them all, the Puliyattam (tiger dance).
Rounding them off in the center is Ganesha playing the thavil, a drum like instrument that usually accompanies most of the folk dances.
These Sadly, most of these are now dying artforms and the artists find it hard to make a living on them. So this is a tribute for the artists who preserve our culture through these artforms!