A Combination of Geometry and Spiritual Expression: Santali Art and Idital Art

Author(s)	Ms. GOURI MOHARANA, Prof. (Dr.) Ranjan Kumar Malli
Country	India
Abstract	Santali art and Idital art—two visually compelling tribal traditions of eastern India—embody a unique synthesis of geometry, spirituality, and cultural memory. While emerging from different ethnic groups, both art forms employ symbolic structures that translate cosmology, ritual practice, and community identity into visual communication. This paper examines how these traditions use geometric organisation not merely as aesthetic design, but as a structural grammar that encodes mythological narratives, ancestral relationships, and ritual functions. Santali art, characterised by rhythmic line work, stylised human forms, and painted wall panels, reflects the community’s social activities, musical culture, and agricultural cycles. Idital art of the Saora tribe, on the other hand, operates as a ritual pictographic language created by religious specialists, in which linear motifs, spirit figures, terraced compositions, and diagrammatic arrangements serve as mediators between the human and supernatural realms.
Keywords	Indigenous, Tribal, Art, Santali, Idital, Geometry, Spiritual
Field	Arts > Drawing
Published In	Volume 7, Issue 6, November-December 2025
Published On	2025-12-21
DOI	https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i06.63270

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