Exhibition of Photographs from Central India

by
Verrier Elwin
At Brunei Gallery, University of London

January12 -24 March 2018

Adivasi Arts Trust (UK)

www.adivasiartstrust.org

Photograph copyright Ashok Elwin

A group of village people assembled under a tree in Patangarh

“Patangarh was a charming village on an abrupt hill in the midst of a wide clearing in the mountains.
On every side were the hills, piled up on one another, of the Maikal Range. In the foreground was the magnificent
symmetry of the Lingo mountain. The sacred Narbada was only half a mile away and we could see its bright waters.
A fresh wind was always blowing. Patangarh was at least five degrees cooler than Sarwachappar or Karanjia. Not
only was the village beautiful, but its inhabitants were more delightful, more amusing, more friendly than any others.
Most of our neighbours were Pardhans, the gay, romantic minstrels of the Gonds”.

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p120)

Two Baiga elders performing a ritual with dry rice and a gourd, 1932.

“The gunia, magician or medicine-man, is in great demand in Gond villages, for sickness is nearly always ascribed to
the agency of witches or malignant spirits. The procedure is for the gunia to be called to the sick man’s house and
given his fee. Then he takes a supa, or bamboo basked used for cleaning rice, and half fills it with dry rice. A disciple
sits opposite holding a tuma or gourd. The gunia, in a low sing-song, begins to utter charms and mantras, rubbing
the rice with his hand. The disciple begins, after a little while to tremble all over and to shake the tuma violently to
and fro.”

(Leaves from the Jungle, p185)

 A group of Baiga children
squatting as they play a
game called Phugri-Phu,
Central India

“The founder of tribe and its great hero was Nanga Baiga. Born on the Hill of Elephants, from the womb of Mother Earth, beneath a
clump of bamboos, and nursed by the divine Bamboo Girl who gave him a golden axe to play with, Nanga Baiga appeared just when
he was wanted. The Creator had made the world, spreading it on the face of the primeval ocean like an enormous flat chapatti; he
had called the wind to harden its surface, but the wind is blind (that is why it is always knocking things over and banging against
people) and did not finish the work. He called Bhimsen to put the mountains in place but Bhimsen was always drunk and was so
heavy that he kept putting his foot through the thin surface. Nothing could make the earth firm and steady. It wobbled. It was like a
broken spider’s web. So the Creator sent for Nanga Baiga. When he came and put his foot on the edge, the world tipped up. But
Nanga Baiga soon put things right. He got four great nails and drove them into the four corners of the earth and after that it was
firm and steady. Then Nanga Baiga helped in the creation of the rest of mankind; it was through him that seen came to the world;
he instituted magic; organised the social and economic life of man; established control over the wild animals. He was the first real
man.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p147)

 “A European even at the seat of war,
had a better expectation of life than a
Gond; and the diseases that ravaged
our villages were every bit as deadly as
bombs or gas. Against the ultimate
enemies of man, hunger and fear,
poverty and death, we were trying to
construct a ‘Line’ of love and sympathy,
and it would have been tragic if we had
abandoned it because of the madness
that had overtaken Europe.”

“The attitude of the Gonds and Baigas to the war was interesting. An old woman put it very well.
‘This’, she said, ‘is how God equalizes things. Our sons and daughters die young, of hunger or disease or
attacks of wild beasts. The sons and daughters of the English could grow old in comfort and happiness.
But God sends madness upon them, and they destroy each other, and so in the end their great
knowledge and their religion is useless and we are all the same”.

“Some of the tribesmen, always excited by a quarrel, were anxious to help. A party of Baigas came one
day with a bundle of bows and arrows which they wanted me to forward to the Government to aid in the
war. When I told them that modern battles were no longer fought with these weapons they were much
concerned. ‘But if they use guns, people will really get killed’, they said.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, pp121-122)

A Baiga father and son refreshing themselves with a drink of wild honey at a special festival of bees celebrated
once every nine years, Madhya Pradesh, 1933 (published in The Illustrated Weekly of India)

“One of my Pardhan friends said to me, ‘Why shouldn’t I welcome him to my poor hut? He
isn’t ashamed of our poverty, he doesn’t even notice it, and is happy to sit on our broken
cots or ragged mats. The people who we consider our enemies, the official and landlords,
dare not enter his house even though they may drive up in their cars. But we can walk
straight in wearing our loin-cloths and he will get up from his chair and embrace us as if we
were Rajas. That is why we open our hearts to him and tell him our secrets’”.

(Scholar Gypsy, p223)

The exterior of Verrier Elwin’s house in Patangarh, 1952
“Once in Patangarh I developed a very large septic boil which I attempted to cure by some antibiotic tablets from our
dispensary. Unfortunately, these had got mixed up with the tablets of Milk of Magnesia which they resemble in size, so they
did not do very much good and I got steadily worse, until I was in acute pain and fever. It was the height of the rains, no motor
transport was possible and I had to be carried thirty-two miles to a place where I could get a car to take me another ninety
miles to the nearest hospital. I shall never forget the cheer and tenderness of the men who carried me in a sort of litter
through pouring rain and partly by night. We had to cross flooded rivers into which my bearers plunged up to the neck, raising
my litter above their heads to keep me dry. When I ultimately reached the hospital I was told that if I had delayed even a few
hours I should have developed generalized blood poisoning, but an immediate operation put me right. Yet it was my tribal
friends who saved me.”
(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p125)
Verrier Elwin’s home in Patangarh village, 1952

“It was a large mud building with a thatched roof and I loved making it, for it had some special features. It had no
outer door, though for the inner rooms I had some old carved Baiga doors that were most ornamental. Then the
entire building was a sort of museum which had things collected from all over India in cases set in the very thick
walls. And the building itself was an example of the local tribal art.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p122)

Muria Jester called the Nakta wearing a mast
at the Chherta Festival. The mask is made
from a gourd, with nose of beeswax, teeth of
gourd-seeds and a turban of red cloth.

“There is no doubt that I was often lonely in

spite of the delightful company of the tribal
people. One year in Patangarh during five
months of the rains I saw just five people
from the outside world. Often, on tour or in
the village when Shamrao was away, I did not
speak a word of English for three or four
weeks at a time.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p101)

Mahatma Gandhi, early 1930s.

“Long letter from Mahatma Gandhi urging me to perform daily yagna or sacrifice, of spinning…as no one here
for hundreds of miles has ever seen a spinning-wheel, decide not to, but suggest rice pounding as a daily
sacrifice instead. Village boy makes rice-pounder and installs it in the corner of the refectory. Formidable
wooden instrument, but apparently quite simple: you raise one end by treading on the other and drop it into a
hole filled with unhusked rice and then you raise it again and drop it again the husks fly off and there you are.”

(Leaves from the Jungle, p123)

Verrier Elwin’s first wedding to Kosi, Patangarh, 1940

The tribal wedding was carried over four full days. On the second morning the bride and groom were separately
anointed, with oil and turmeric, then bathed and dressed – in his case, a yellow dhoti, a long cassock-like upper
garment and a crown of coloured paper. Finally in the evening Verrier and Kosi were taken three times around the
wedding pole in the ceremony that confirmed their union.”

(Savaging the Civilized, p130)

Verrier Elwin’s first wedding to Kosi, Patangarh, 1940.

“On the third day Verrier carried Kosi off in triumph to his home village. This as they both lived in Patangarh
was deemed to be Sarwachappar, the hamlet ten miles distant where the Bumijan Seva Mandal still
maintained a home for lepers. At Sarwachappar they went thrice more around a pole and then settled down
to the marriage sermon”. The Gond pujari tailored his talk to the extraordinary circumstance of a tribal girl
marrying an Englishman. “Listen brother, when she is foolish, do not despise her thinking her a mere daughter
of the forest. Never find fault with her or grumble at her. And you girl, never say he is bad he forgets me, he
does not love me, and so leave him. He is English. He has come from another land to love us.”

(Savaging the Civilized p130)

Maria dancers each with a dancing stick in her right hand form a long line in which they go round and through the male
dancers with many different movements and steps, 15th January 1942 at Sameli village, Bastar

“We often gave parties, which usually ended in a dance, and what was more important we were given parties in return. In
the Mandla villages these were quite elaborate affairs – our hosts would clean their houses and spend all day preparing
food, which was generally very tasty. When the time for supper came, a number of people would arrive to escort us. The
strongest youth present would hoist me on his back, another would pick up Shamrao, and then proceeded by women
singing songs of welcome we would be carried to our host’s house.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p124)

A festive assembly of Maria Gonds under a tree with those in the foreground shown pouring out home-made
liquor from gourds. Bastar 1941.

“To accept tribal hospitality (provided it is not overdone) is a very good thing. It breaks the one-sided patronage
of charity, the condescension of benevolence. When you reach a point that people want to do things for you
and are proud to do so rather than always being on the receiving end, you have made a big step forward.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p125)

Gond marriage - post from Mandla, with red &
blue dots on a white ground, glass teeth & Cowrie
eyes. The wood is shorea tubuster and the post
stands 60 inches above the ground.

“For them as for their elders, all nature is alive with

spirits – Nang-banshee living in the great trees,
Bhageshwar Deo, lord of the wild beasts, whose
dwelling is in the running water and under stones
and bushes, the wicked Machan who lurks by the
highways and robs the passers-by, the angry
burning ghost in the unhappy hollow of the semur
tree, Makramal Kshattri the monstrous spider
whom you may meet at dusk straddling across the
road, and Saraglil whose mouth is ever open,
whose lower lips rests on the ground, while the
upper touches the sky.”

(Leaves from the Jungle, p19)

Baiga Masked Dancer in a Chhera Dance. Pandpur, Mandla
District, Central Province.

“My becoming an Indian was not a negative thing, or

reaction against something. I fell in love with India when I
was with Gandhi and he accepted me. Later I had even
stronger intense and specialized attachment to India’s tribal
people”.

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p326)

Hill Maria youths in the traditional leaf skirts,
Abujhmar Bastar, 1940

“Once I was off the main road and away from the
few administrative centres, I hardly ever saw an
official. The people lived their own life,
unhampered if unimproved, and they lived it well.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p162)

“Most fortunate are those who are captured by a

cause, such as the well-being of the tribal people,
which demands a lifelong devotion, even though it may
open the door to anxiety, frustration and deep sorrow in
sympathy with others.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p347)

A group of Muria girls in Bastar listening to the
gramophone, 1941 (published in The Illustrated
Weekly of India)

It was in Bastar that I first began to use the

gramophone as a means of breaking down
barriers and creating a friendly atmosphere. I
got some excellent Hindi comic records and also
used to play a little Mozart and Beethoven
which, I am sorry to say did not go down very
well.

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p156)

Chelik of Nayanar squirts water at a motiari, 1941.

“This mud hut philosophy bids us not to demand too much from life, not to set too much store on things, not
even to expect too much from the immortal gods, but to love most where love will be returned, in the charmed
family circle, in the friends who will stand by you till death. A gay freedom of spirit is the most precious of
possessions, and simplicity of hear the greatest treasure man or woman knows.”

(Leaves from the Jungle p27)

Muria girls having fun together, Bastar, 1941

“The ghotul was the central focus of Muria life, coming down to modern times from Lingo, the heroic ancestor of
the tribe, who founded it. It was natural that the ghotul should foster every kind of art, for here the boys and girls
were all the time on their toes to attract one another and to make life what they believed it should be, beautiful,
lively and interesting. And so the boys made and decorated charming little combs for their girls, and elaborate
tobacco-boxes for themselves; the girls made necklaces, pendants and belts of beads and cowries. The boys
carved the pillars and doors of their ghotul building, which was often the finest house in the village. They made
exciting toys and masks. And above all they danced”.

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p163)

Stilt Fighting, Muria, Bastar, 1941

“In our earlier years in the village Shamrao and I

had a common purse. We did not take any salary
and foolishly made no kind of insurance for the
future. We drew what was needed for our
expenses and tried to live simply. Anything we
received went into the common stocks. For
example, for five years I received a research grant
from Merton College and, later, a grant from the
Leverhulme Foundation. Later in Shillong, I had
my official honorarium.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p126)

Bastar children’s panther or Tiger game: One of the
exciting games played by the children of North Bastar
is known as the Panther or Tiger game. A boy imitating
the panther or tiger attacks a lot of children who
represent cattle. He is then hunted down and "killed"
by mock archers. Here they are marking the boy all
over with white stars to make some kind of crude
resemblance to a panther or tiger. Pupgaon, Bastar,
1941.

“All the time that I was working on these and other

books I was collecting stories. I put some hundred and
fifty of them in a book Folk-Tales of Mahakoshal.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p151)

Composing books is one thing. Typing them out and
getting them printed is quite another. I myself typed out
all my larger books. My practice was to type out a rough
draft and then retype it again filling in the gaps and finally
to make a fair copy. This involved an enormous amount of
work.”

The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin p197)

Riding on the totemic elephant, regarded by the
Oraons of Chota Nagpur as being closely connected
with the ‘luck’ of a place, early 1940s.

“I think that the primitive has a real message for our

sophisticated modern world which is once again
threatened with disintegration as a result of its
passion for possessions and its lack of love”.

(Leaves from the Jungle, p27)

Bondo woman, Koraput District, Orissa 1946

“Our next village, Bandapada was very timid. At I

went down the street, mothers seized their children
and hurried them indoors, girls fled whimpering
with fright, doors banged fowls and pigs scurried to
safety, one youth hastily got up a tree. Only a few
old men, greatly daring, came to greet us. I can
endure any hardship other than the realization that I
look like a sort of ogre. Later I hear that it was
supposed that I had come to take girls for the war,
that I was going to send all the children to America
to be baptized, and – most curious of all – that I
was an Excise Officer who had come to introduce
Prohibition.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p183)

Kutia Kondh, Orissa c 1944

“Now in relation to India I remembered how my family had made its money, such as it was, out of India,
and my countrymen had gone to India to exploit it, and to rule. I thought, therefore, that I might go to
India as an act of reparation, from my family somebody should go to give instead of to get, to serve with
the poorest people instead of ruling them, to become one with the country that we had helped to
dominate and subdue. This idea became sufficiently important to break up my Oxford career and was
the driving force that carried me through many difficult years in India”.

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p36)

Men dancers among the Konds paint themselves with stripes, Ganjam District, Orissa c 1944

“One of Verrier’s most useful qualities as an anthropologist is his power to put himself out of the picture, to fade
into the background and remain as an observer”.

(Scholar Gypsy, p224)

Marguerite Milward, author of Artist in Tribal India. sculpts the bust of Singaru, a Gond woman 1936, Patangarh

“One of her sayings was that ‘art unites where politics divide’. Marguerite who was a most engaging person but of
enormous size, along with her cases of cement and clay, was altogether too much for our old car and as we were
passing through Kanker everything fell out through the bottom and we had to send to Jagdalpur to be rescued”.

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p154)

Gadaba woman of Orissa, 1943

“They were full of interest about my way of life,

invading the tent at all times, and even peeping into my
bathroom (a very small leaf-hut) to study my
techniques. Indeed, I often felt as if I were a museum
specimen and they members of an ethnological
committee investigating a creature of the absurdist
habits.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p171)

Gadaba girl, Orissa 1943

“As Hinduism spreads in a tribal area, the tribes tend to sink down to the bottom of the social scale”.

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p342)

Gadaba woman with water pot, Orissa 1943

“Whatever is done, and I would be the last to lay down a

general programme, it must be done with caution and
above all with love and reverence. The aboriginals are
the real swadeshi products of India, in whose presence
everyone is foreign.”

(Scholar Gypsy, p127)

Gadaba girls . Orissa, 1943

“In all the tribes, some of the boys and girls stood out from the rest through their beauty, their intelligence or wit,
their aptitude for games or dances. Some of the older people were distinguished by their appearance, their
knowledge and willingness to share it, or by what they did for me. But generally speaking, though I have many
names in my mind, they were all my friends - and this is the unique and rather wonderful thing about tribal life:
you escape from the normal individualism, the possessiveness and jealousies of sophisticated friendships into
something broader and more universal.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, pp125-126)

Lila Elwin, c1 963

“When man is brought by love to realize his

part in the life of the whole world, he no longer
is open to the isolating power of loneliness; his
personality is expanded to a sense of unity with
all things. Love brings him freedom from fear.
It brings him peace and fills his soul with a
gentle power that will unite conflicting forces.”

(The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin, p348)