Sohrai

A livestock harvest festival where cattle are bathed and tribal women paint spectacular geometric murals on mud walls.

After the harvest, when the grain comes home, the festival gives thanks to the cattle and celebrates their place in farming life.

Women decorate the mud walls of their homes with traditional pigments in bird and animal motifs - the famous Sohrai art. The cattle are bathed, adorned and fed special dishes.

The head of the house performs the opening puja. The next day the cattle's feet are washed and their foreheads anointed with vermilion and ghee; the final days bring traditional cattle sports.

Painting Sohrai art on the walls is believed to invite Lakshmi into the home and protect the cattle, keeping the household free of illness through the year.

An ancient tribal harvest festival whose motifs echo the region's prehistoric cave paintings; in the Hazaribagh region the art form has passed from generation to generation for centuries.

A cattle and harvest festival after Diwali, and the reason to go is the painting. Women repaint the mud walls of Hazaribagh villages in black, white and ochre with animals, birds and trees — the style carries a GI tag, and it has a documented line back to rock art in the same district. Cattle are washed and their horns oiled and painted.