The people and place
Gond communities extend across central India, with locally distinct practices. Godna cannot be reduced to one Gond style. In Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh, sources describe Pardhan Gond and Badi or Badna specialists who tattooed Gond and Baiga women.
Who made the tattoos
Women held much of the technical and visual knowledge. A mother could pass the practice to a daughter, while specialist tattooists travelled seasonally. Needles and soot or plant pigments turned dots, triangles and lines into a vocabulary carried on skin.
Design and meaning
Meanings were local and could connect beauty, grace, belonging and the afterlife. In Jamgala, the triangular cluster of dots called tipka godna is associated with beauty and grace. The practice also created work and social relationships among women.
Surguja and Jamgala
In Surguja district, the best-documented contemporary work comes from Gond women in Jamgala and nearby villages. Women recall tattoos as permanent ornaments connected to beauty, memory, identity and the journey after death.
From skin to surface
As fewer young women chose tattooing, artists led by Ramkeli Paole began painting godna designs on cloth, pottery and paper. The move creates livelihood and visibility, while changing the pain, ceremony, bodily permanence and relationship between tattooist and wearer.