Sohrai Art: Celebrating Harvest, Heritage, and Womanhood

Folk paintings created following the rainy season, specifically around the Hindu festival of Diwali, were known as Sohrai in the Santhal tribal regions of Jharkhand and borders of Bihar. These techniques of making Sohrai paintings on the walls of local dwellings is passed from one generation to the other. These compositions are created on two occasions: one after the rainy season and before the harvest season (around Deepawali). As a cultural inheritance from cave occupants to the locals and was then spread throughout the eastern region of India, this art has a long history. The colours used in this picture (red, black, yellow, and white) are natural earth colours, chewing twigs are used as paint brushes, while cloth rags are used to apply the base coat. Returning to the present, Sohrai is derived from the Mundari term Soroi, which means “to lash with a stick.” The economy of the community relies heavily on domestic animals. They assist in agriculture as well as supplying milk products. Cattle are the most essential domestic animals since they supply milk and are used in agriculture for ploughing fields, as well as their dung being used as manure and plastering dwellings. This is why cows are held in highest regard among Hindu families that their manure is used in religious rites too. After the rainy season paddy is harvested to begin with and from here the celebration of Sohrai starts to thank the livestock.