Ceremonial Wall Art

Ceremonial — 55 museum-grade prints that set the mood. Aipan is the ritual floor- and wall-art of the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand, made traditionally by Kumaoni women with white rice-paste (biswar) drawn by fingertip onto a geru — red-ochre earth — ground. The chholiya is Kumaon's martial sword-and-shield dance, performed by costumed dancers who lead wedding processions to the beat of dhol-damau and the turi-ransingha horns. Cheriyal scrolls come from Cheriyal village in Telangana's Siddipet district, painted for generations by the Nakashi artist community. They were long narrative cloth scrolls unrolled episode by episode by travelling balladeer-storytellers — the kaki padagollu and allied story-telling castes — who sang the epics and caste-origin legends to village audiences through the night. The haldi (turmeric) ceremony is a pre-wedding rite across India in which family members apply a paste of turmeric to the bride and groom for blessing, auspiciousness and glow. In Telangana it is sung over with the dappu frame drum in the courtyard of the family home.

Updated 22 Jun 2026