Artist: Shantaram Gokharam
Tribe: Warli
Medium: Cow Dung and white rice, painted with bamboo nib, on cotton canvas
Dimensions: 41" x 24.25" | Walnut Gallery Medium Moulding, Digital White Oversized Mat
One of the most powerful of the Warli deities is Kansari Devi, the Goddess of Rice. She is not the most beautiful of the goddesses, yet she is highly revered for she protects the farmers and their crops. She is often seen in the form of a small girl, sometimes with a limp, sometimes with a bangle only on her left wrist, sometimes with a blackened face. She is revered because she chooses to work the land and tend the earth with the humans rather than enjoy her supernatural gifts. The kunbi ('farmer') make offerings to her for a successful harvest, and in gratitude after the harvest is completed. If the kunbi finds favor with Kansari, they believe they will be rewarded with large harvests for the coming year. However, Kansari can be vengeful, and is important to not be too selfish, for if Kansari is displeased with a kunbi who hoards too much grain, she will grow angry and take all of his harvest away.
