Mahua Tree

Acrylic on canvas, 90 x 40 cm, 650 USD

Trees are sacred to the Baiga tribe. They support all life forms. Every part of the tree is useful. Trees appear in our myths, folktales, and rituals. The one shown here is the Mahua tree, one of the most important. Many stories are based on it. Its flowers bloom at night and fall to the ground at dawn, creating a cream carpet around their parent tree. Deer, monkeys, and wild boar are the first visitors to feast on the sweet fruit. Members of our tribe then collect the fallen flowers and distill them in earthenware pots to make mahu, a liquor.

The Baiga tribe is one of several hundred adivasis, the “first inhabitants” of India who mostly live in remote, difficult to reach regions of the country.