BHOPAL (Madhya Pradesh): On Tuesday evening, the mood at the Kotra Sultanabad home of Durga Bai Vyom was celebratory. A band was playing outside and TV crews were in attendance.
Gond painter Durga Bai,45, was awarded the Padma Shri on Tuesday. Durga Bai was born in Burbaspur village of Mandla district and moved to Sanpuri in the neighbouring Dindori district after her marriage.
Currently, she lives in the Kotra Sultanabad area in Bhopal. "I never thought that I would get the award. The Mandla collector informed me about it at around 1pm on Tuesday. He said that I will get the award on Wednesday. But I got confirmation from an official of the Tribal Museum in the evening. He called me after seeing the news on TV and congratulated me,” she says. Gradually, her phone was flooded with messages from her wellwishers. She thanked all who supported her.
She first came to know about the award when Gond artist Bhajju Shyam got it and last year Bhil artist Bhuri Bai got the award. “I am the first female Gond artist to have got the award. So, I am very happy and I want to teach the art to the younger generation so that they can preserve this traditional art form,” she says.
Durga who has been associated with the art for around 30 years says she is inspired by the father of Gond art Jangarh Singh Shyam. She came to Bhopal in 1996 with her husband Subhash Vyom.
He got the job of making wood works in the Lokrang. He was called by the officials of the Tribal Museum through the Gond painter Jangarh Singh Shyam. “I also came to Bhopal with my three children and my husband. We stayed at Jangarh Singh's house. In between, my son's health deteriorated and we had to stay in Bhopal for a long time. Then we rented a house. After this she made up her mind to stay in Bhopal and joined Bharat Bhavan. My painting was displayed for the first time in 1997 at Bharat Bhavan, which was highly appreciated. After this the journey of painting started.
She got a job in Madhyam and later in Tribal Museum. “I mostly do painting on nature, earth, Narmada river etc. on canvas,” she says Durga has three children and all are artists. “My son-in-law and daughter-in-law also paint,” she says
Apart from different places in the country, she has also visited London, France, Germany and Dubai. Many art museums and individual collectors in the country have a collection of Gond paintings of Durga, Besides Durga has also made paintings for the cover pages of many books including One to Three, Night Life of Trees and Bhimayana based on Ambedkar's life published by Navanya. Books like Khichdi are included. She has also been awarded with Rani Durgavati National Award 2009, National Award 2011, Vikram Birla Kalakaran Award 2013.
