Jodhaiya Bai Baiga

Jodhaiya Bai Baiga was a painter from the Baiga tribe of Madhya Pradesh who began working with brush and colour only in later life. She was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of art, from Madhya Pradesh ^[1].

Years of hardship

She was born on 1 January 1949 in Lorha, a small village in Umaria district ^[2]. For most of her life she lived in deep poverty, doing hard labour and odd jobs, selling firewood and brewing liquor from mahua flowers to get by ^[2].

A studio in the village

Things changed in 2008, when the artist Ashish Swami, a former student of Kala Bhavana at Santiniketan, set up a studio called Jan Gan Tasveerkhana in Lorha ^[2]. He gave her work there and introduced her to painting ^[2].

She had never been to school, but her paintings showed a striking imagination ^[2]. The Baiga worship Shiva, the snake and the tiger, and Shiva appears in nearly all her work ^[2]. Her figures are bright, geometric and childlike, dressed in dramatic costume, and her paintings of folk tales about the tiger god carried a message about protecting forests and wildlife ^[2].

A legacy in Lorha

Her work brought attention to Baiga culture and drew thousands of visitors from India and abroad, turning the village into a place for art tourism ^[2]. She also taught many Baiga women to paint and earn their own living ^[2]. In March 2022 the President presented her with the Nari Shakti Puraskar ^[2].

She died at her village in Umaria district in December 2024 after a long illness ^[3].