Pareshbhai Rathwa

Paresh Rathwa is a lakhara, or painter, of Pithora, the ritual wall painting of the Rathwa community, from Kawant in Gujarat’s Chhota Udaipur district. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2023 in the field of art, from Gujarat ^[1].

Learning beside the painters

Rathwa was born on 17 August 1968 ^[2]. Poverty ended his schooling at the tenth standard, and from childhood he went along with the Pithora painters of his village ^[2]. At 22 his community recognised him as a lakhara, and from 1990 he painted Pithora from village to village ^[2].

Saving a fading art

In 1995 he visited the tribal museum of Gujarat’s Tribal Research Institute ^[2]. Its curator, Mr Ghosalkar, admired his work but worried that Pithora was disappearing from tribal life, and encouraged him to help save it ^[2]. That set Rathwa on a mission to preserve and spread the form ^[2].

He has shown his work at exhibitions in Japan in 1995 and Italy in 2000, and given live demonstrations at more than 30 exhibitions, fairs and festivals organised by TRIFED, tribal research institutes and government ministries ^[2]. He has painted Pithora on the walls of Delhi’s INA metro station, the Tribes India showroom, the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and a teacher training building in Gandhinagar ^[2]. He has also taught it online to art lovers in seven countries, and his work has reached galleries and museums in England, Italy, France and Japan ^[2].

He received a Gujarat state award in 2018 and was named best Pithora artist by the Governor and Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2019 ^[2].