Baiga

Baiga communities live across the forested regions of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Published accounts describe godna as a defining practice for women, accumulated across the body over different stages of life.

Tattooing was often carried out by hereditary women specialists from neighbouring Gond or Badna communities. They travelled to Baiga settlements after the rains, carrying a skilled practice across community lines. Sources differ by district, so this should be understood as one documented pattern rather than a rule for every Baiga settlement.

Designs were first placed with small bamboo sticks and then pricked with needles. INTACH records pigment made from roasted ramtil seed, followed by washing and plant-based aftercare.

A girl might receive her first forehead marks around nine or ten. Later tattoos marked adulthood, marriage and motherhood. The chest tattoo recorded after childbirth is described as a final major stage. Sun forms, dots, lines and dense geometric fields joined beauty to social identity and spiritual continuity.

Pain, stigma, cost and changing ideas of modernity have reduced the practice among younger women. Baiga artists such as Mangala Bai Maravi now also carry godna knowledge onto paper and canvas, allowing the visual language to travel while raising questions about what is changed when a mark leaves the body.