Mandana Wall Art - One of Rajasthan's Oldest Art Form

Famed for warding off evil and acting as a good luck charm, this beautiful tribal art of Mandana is derived from the word ‘Mandan’ referring to decoration and beautification and comprises simple geometric forms like triangles, squares and circles to decorate houses.

Mandana in the local language refers to ‘drawing’ in the context of chitra mandana or ‘drawing a picture’. Historically, it has been practiced for centuries by women of the Meena community to decorate their homes for special or festive occasions. Among others, these events included communal religious worship, festivals and fasts and lastly auspicious days in the life of the community such as birth or marriage. 

Since they were drawn for spiritual purposes, the pictures usually consisted of the main deity of the festival. This served two main purposes - to invoke the deity of the festival and to symbolise the gods and goddesses.