The constraints caused by fast dwindling motuku trees (Butea monosperma) notwithstanding, Adivasis in Adilabad and neighbouring districts cannot restrain themselves from making natural colours from its flowers. Though the activity is carried out on a much reduced scale, the craving of the Adivasis for natural colours to be used during Holi hasn’t died down.
A couple of days ahead of the festival, youngsters venture into the forest and open spaces where the blooming ‘flame of the forest’ are found. The flowers are used in making an eco-friendly colour used for smearing on near and dear ones.
“For centuries, we have played Holi with the orange colour extracted from the mur pungar (Gondi word for motuku flowers),” said Pendur Bhagwant Rao, headman or patel of Samaka village in Indervelli mandal. “We want to continue the tradition as long as we can,” he added as he alluded towards the steadily decreasing number of palash trees.
For the Gond and Kolam ethnic people, extraction of ‘raggal rang’ or red colour becomes a leisure-time activity as they have less work in agriculture fields. Ugadi festival comes after 15 days of Holi and that’s when farmers get busy with preparations for kharif.
The process of extracting colour from flowers may involve a few people or just one individual. The thick succulent flowers are ground into a pulpy mass with a stone either on the local well or some other source of water like a bore-well.
“The pulp is then dipped into water which turns orange and the mixture is kept in a bucket for 24 hours which makes it thicker and gives it a much darker hue. The colour is used after mixing it with water,” said Soyam Julpu, a Gond elder, also from Samaka.
“If one needs to make the colour faster, a small quantity of edible oil is mixed with it. The oil-mixed colour does not fade even after a few months,” Julpu added.
