RAM NARAIN MARAWI – GOND ARTIST of MADHYA PRADESH

video clip | View Paintings

Ram Narain Marawi grew up listening to myths and tales from his father Shri Hari Ram Marawi, an acclaimed Pardhan artist, who signs out the Gondi ballads to the accompaniment of the musical instrument, the bana.

When Ram Narain got married to Indu Bai, the artist, he was thrilled to see her works and enjoyed being in the world of colours and images. When they went to the craft museum, Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, she would urge him to paint. And when she would appreciate his work, he would feel a great joy. This is the way, Ram Narain, gradually learnt the art of painting from his wife. As a child, he quite often had made some images on the walls of his house, but he never knew he would also become an artist one day, that his painting would provide him another source of income.

Ram Narain is fond of painting animals like deer, tigers. He goes inside the mind of the animals and paints. His portrayal of tigress looks thoughtful while teaching her cubs to hunt rabbits. In another painting , a tiger and tigress, stalking a deer, are wondering, as to who should pounce upon the deer first. Ram Narain loves to paint bana, the musical instrument of Badadev, with which his father Shri Hari Ram Marwai, have been singing away the Gondi mythic songs, for the past five decades.