Support development of Book - Painted Songs & Stories
PAINTED SONGS & STORIES
The Hybrid Flowerings of Contemporary Pardhan Gond Art
JOHN H. BOWLES
Foreword by Pankaj Mishra & 2nd Edition’s New Preface by Hartosh Singh Bal
2nd Revised Edition
Hindi edition forthcoming
“Gond artists see the world with revivifying freshness, and are one of the most vibrant––and overlooked––treasures of contemporary India. How lucky we are that John Bowles has been working selflessly for years, with the rigor of a scholar and the ardor of a friend, to bring them to us all. His erudition, passion and thoughtfulness do them––and us––proud”
–Pico Iyer
Author of The Open Road & The Lady and the Monk
In the late 19th century, Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book first brought worldwide attention to central India’s Gond tribal peoples. Yet, in India, the tribe’s Pardhan Gond clan were already long renowned as great storytellers, itinerant professional bards, priests, genealogists, and oral historians.
Since the early 1980s, many Pardhan Gonds have moved from their remote jungle villages to the city of Bhopal, where they created a hybrid art style combining traditional subject matter and forms of visual expression with modern media—ranging from ink and acrylics on paper or canvas to silk screen prints and animated films. Originally published in 2009 as the catalog for the first American exhibition of these arts, this publication traces their evolution from the 1981 chance discovery of a single artistic genius–-a young Pardhan Gond villager named Jangarh Singh Shyam––into an internationally recognized and vibrant indigenous art movement.
Eklavya Publication’s 2026 release of this book’s second edition, in both Hindi and English, includes a new preface by Hartosh Singh Bal, and John H. Bowles’s fresh update on recent accomplishments by both earlier-recognized masters and an emerging new generation of artists. This movement’s evolution reveals both the prejudices and challenges of modernity faced by contemporary tribals, and their resilience and capacity for masterful innovation––adapting themselves and their traditional culture to new circumstances and livelihoods within a globalizing India and the postmodern international art world.
Featured artists:
Jangarh Singh Shyam
Ram Singh Urveti
Suresh Singh Dhurvey
Durga Bai Vyam
Rajendra Shyam
Bhajju Shyam
Venkat Raman Singh Shyam
and eleven other recognized or emerging artists.
Support us
in making widely available in English and Hindi a book which
- Is the most comprehensive updated catalog of contemporary Pardhan Gond art
- Includes more than 100 colour and monochrome images of artworks
Your support will enable us to keep the prices accessible for English as well as Hindi readers.
To make a contribution, write to us at [email protected] or scan the QR code below.
- 142 pages, with 100 illustrations (83 in color, 27 in black & white)
To be Published by
EKLAVYA FOUNDATION
Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, 462 026
Second Revised Edition, 2026
includes the author’s new illustrated Afterword
and a new Preface by Hartosh Singh Bal.
Email: [email protected]
Phone:(0755) 297 7770, 71, (0755) 420 0944, 55
eklavya.in
The original (now out-of-print)
First Edition was published in 2009 by INTACH’s Bhopal Chapter.
Click here for supporting development of Book - Painted Songs & Stories or scan following QR Code from your mobile