10 September 2026 · Blog
Sohrai and Khovar: the painted walls of Hazaribagh
Drive through villages around Hazaribagh in late October or November and you will see mud houses covered in huge animals, plants and geometric patterns in red, black, white and yellow earth. This is Sohrai painting; its sister art, Khovar, is painted for weddings. Together they received a GI tag in 2020.
Painted with earth and fingers
The colours come from local soils: geru (red oxide), kali mitti (black manganese earth), dudhi mitti (white kaolin) and yellow ochre. Brushes are made from twigs or rags, but much of the work is done with the fingers. In Khovar, the wall is first coated in black, then covered in white, and the design is scratched out with a comb or a broken piece of wood so the dark layer shows through.
What the walls say
Sohrai walls are full of cattle, peacocks, elephants, deer and the Pashupati figure, a horned lord of animals. They are painted for the harvest and cattle festival after Diwali, when the cows return from the fields. Khovar (from kohbar, the bridal chamber) is about fertility: lotuses, vines and pairs of birds.
Thousands of years old?
Researchers have pointed to similarities between these designs and the rock paintings at Isko and other shelters in the Hazaribagh hills, some of which may be several thousand years old. Whether or not the line is direct, the art has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.
Where to see it
Villages around Hazaribagh such as Jorakath, Bhelwara and Isko; the walls are freshest just after the rains. In Ranchi, the walls of the railway station and many government buildings now carry Sohrai murals.