ABSTRACT
At the very beginning of time, the Adivasi lived in caves or under trees—not as a family, but with the women looking after the children, and the men hunting for food in the jungle. Once, unable to find anything nearby, a hunter strayed far into the thickly forested mountainside. It was arid and dry, and he was exhausted by nightfall. In many ways, Jaidev Baghel underscores the fragile and contested notion in India of the “traditional craftsman.” While on the one hand he proudly traces his descent from several generations of casters, he is noted for innovation. Indeed, he describes himself no longer as a master craftsman but as a sculptor. His self-identification as Adivasi also marks a self-conscious fashioning of his artistic place not only in Bastar and Chhattisgarh, but also in India. Ever since independence in 1947, the Indian government has sought to recognize exceptional practitioners and to perpetuate craftsmanship as a defining element of the nation.
