Dilip Rama Bahotha

Our Warli master artist Dilip Rama Bahotha ji hails from a small village of Varkhande, near Talasari, Maharashtra. Born in 1975, he got inspired to pursue painting as his career under the guidance of his master Madhukar Vadu. In 1996, as a young college student he was awarded an ‘Art Prize on Mission’ in Germany. Later he was encouraged by Father Wendell D’Cruz to continue to experiment with the art form. He has exhibited his art works in Ahmedabad, Bhopal, Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Goa, Cochin, Chennai and various other cities across the globe.

The Warli painting is a ritualistic art of the Warli tribe of northern Maharashtra, India. Made for special occassions of weddings and harvest, the artform is said to date nearly 2500 years back. The traditional wall paintings depict no mythological themes, but scenes of everyday life. The circle and triangle come from the tribe’s observation of nature, the circle representing the sun and the moon, the triangle derived from mountains and pointed trees. Only the square seems to obey a different logic and seems to be a human invention, indicating a sacred enclosure or a piece of land.