Santhal painting is a folk art style created by the Santhal tribes of Bengal. The paintings typically depict simple themes of tribal life like musical processions, harvests, and family rituals. Santhal paintings are made by drawing with natural or synthetic paints on cloth or paper scrolls. The scrolls are used by Santhal singers to tell stories as they carry the paintings from village to village, collecting donations as payment for their performance. The Santhal tribes are indigenous people spread across parts of Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, and their artistic style reflects their cultural traditions and environment.

1. SANTHAL
PAINTING
BHAVANA PATIL

2. WHAT IS
SANTHAL
PAINTING?
• The Santhal folk painting, drawn
by the Santhal tribes living in
Bengal, is a folk art with a
distinctive style of their own. Here
we see paintings where the tribes
are in musical procession or
illustration of other simple themes
like harvest, family life, and rituals

3. HOW ARE SANTHAL PAINTINGS MADE
AND ON WHAT MATERIAL IT IS MADE?
•The Santhals paint in Pata or cloth.
These then form the scrolls which
unfurl to tell a story. They take the
paintings from village to village not to
sell their paintings but to get money
in form of donations by singing songs

4. DID YOU
KNOW ?
• Santhals earlier used natural colours
which were prepared from various
leaves and flowers. But now they have
started painting with synthetic paints on
paper in small and medium-size scrolls
This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC.

5. DID YOU
KNOW?
• The Santhals are a tribe spread over
the region of present day Bihar,
Jharkhand and West Bengal states
of the Indian subcontinent. Like any
other tribe the Santals have an
exclusive artistic perception rooted
in their cultural traditions and
physical environs.

6. SANTHAL
PAINTING

7. This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.