Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya organised National Tagore Public lecture where, Vasant Nirgune (National Tagore Fellow, Ministry of Culture, Govt of India) spoke on “Madhya Pradesh ki pramukh janjatiyon se vilupt hoti Godna pratha”.
Presiding over the programme, Director, IGRMS, Professor Sarit Kumar Chaudhuri said, “By looking at tattoos of any tribal community you can understand social structure, social relations, harmony and their economicand political situation.”
Nirgune commenced his lecture with history of Godnas, he said, “The most important thing is the Godnas (tattoos) and lifestyles of all tribes are different from each-other. While research I found that the Godna practice is declining amsongst the tribes, slowly its extincting from the bodies of tribal. According to a legend, the trend of Godna Tattoos started as means of ethnic identity. There is a legend in the Gond tribe about origin of Godna.
Once, lord Shiva invited all deities to a feast. At the banquet, a Gond diety also joined with other gods. All the gods participated with their wives. All Goddesses along with lady Parvati sitting on the ground were talking in small groups. After dinner, Gond God could not recognise his wife amongst the group of ladies and mistakenly he put his hand on the shoulder of lady Parvati asking her to return hope.
At this gesture, Parvati screamed at him with anger. But Mahadev understood that the Gond God has done that mistakenly. Finally to avoid such misunderstandings, lady Parvati came up with an idea to get separate tattoo motifs for separate tribes.
Ever since then ladies started getting tattoos drawn on their bodies. Thus, began the practice of tattoos in the world. This legend was mentioned by Warrier Elvin in his book 'Myths of Middle India` almost a century ago”.
He further explained in detail about the Godna art in Madhya Pradesh, Nirgune said, “Amongst the Godnas of Madhya Pradesh the most primitive is of Baiga community, whose appearance has not changed to this day. Thick lines are drawn on the entire body, which are perfectly geometric in design.