Highlights

• The Savara tribal art — Edisinge — that once flourished in the Eastern Ghats, is on the verge of extinction owing to the change in the religious profile and lifestyle of the community.
• The Savara Art Society in 2011 to revive Edisinge art as some of the surviving artists are too old to practise it.
• The tribe’s association with nature and wildlife is vividly depicted through drawings on mud walls by using vermillion, rice powder and charcoal. The lifestyle, modes of agriculture, hunting, festivals and life in the forest are the prime themes. The art works are replaced by new ones once in two or five years.
• The art offers a peek into the lifestyle of previous generations of savaras.
• Change in the religious profile of savara families and replacement of mud houses with concrete buildings are the reasons for the slow death of the ancient art.
• The Seetampeta Integrated Tribal Development Authority has also been striving to revive it in many ways.

The Edisinge artists have been given projects by the Indian Railways and the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority with the twin objectives of promoting the art and giving youth of the tribe a chance to earn their livelihood.

Source: The Hindu