In 1981, Jagdish Swaminathan, the eminent artist and director of Bhopal’s multi-art complex, Bharat Bhavan, visited Patangarh, a hamlet in Madhya Pradesh, and came across a wall painting of Bajrang Bali created by Jangarh Singh Shyam, belonging to the Pardhan Gond community. The 21-year-old was then invited to Bhopal to replicate his art on canvas and went on to become the pioneering contemporary Gond artist whose works were exhibited at Tokyo, New York and Paris. The critic Udayan Vajpeyi also credits Shyam for being the creator of a new school of Indian art called Jangarh Kalam.

Sukhnandi Vyam Pardhan painting with acrylic colours