Earlier this year, the Indian government posthumously honoured Krishna Raghavan, popularly known by his pen name Kitna, with the prestigious Padma Shri award. Krishna belonged to the Alu Kurumba community, a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) residing in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu. While the award brought much-deserved recognition to Krishna’s exceptional contributions to indigenous art, it also left his community grappling with a painful question: who will carry forward his legacy?
Krishna was born in the remote Vellarikombai settlement in Kotagiri, Tamil Nadu, deep within the Nilgiris hills. The Alu Kurumba form a sub-group of the Kurumba tribe, which is classified as a PVTG by the Indian government due to its social and economic marginalization, stagnant population growth, and low literacy levels. The Nilgiris district is home to all six PVTG communities identified in Tamil Nadu, making it a region rich in tribal heritage but also vulnerable to cultural erosion.
Krishna’s recognition rekindled awareness about one of the Nilgiris’ ancient art forms—Kurumba painting—which is estimated to be over 3,000 years old. Traditionally, Kurumba art was painted on rocks and cave walls scattered across the high hills of the region. The earliest documented evidence of these paintings dates back to 1871-72, underscoring the deep historical roots of this visual tradition. However, today, fewer than ten indigenous artists remain who practice Kurumba painting, and only three of them possess the knowledge to extract the natural colours that make the artworks durable.
This dwindling number of practitioners has raised alarms among tribal leaders and activists, who fear the art form could disappear without urgent intervention. They are calling on the Tamil Nadu state government to formally recognise the remaining artists and to create a comprehensive visual anthropological record of Krishna’s works. Such a record would serve not only as a preservation of the artwork but also as a vital documentation of the Alu Kurumbas’ way of life and cultural identity.
Krishna’s journey as an artist began with his maternal grandfather, Kithari, who passed on to him the traditional knowledge of their community. Alongside teaching him practical skills like millet cultivation, honey collection, and forest produce preservation, Kithari introduced Krishna to the art of drawing on rocks and rock beds—a practice grounded in their ancestral heritage. Every year, Krishna accompanied his grandfather to the Ezhuthuparai cave, where generations of community elders had painted rock surfaces, and by the age of six, he was already learning the intricate patterns.
What began as a childhood pastime evolved into a lifelong passion and vocation. Krishna expanded his medium from rock surfaces to cloth, and later to canvas and paper, adapting the traditional art form for broader expression. His interactions with artists from other indigenous communities across India further enriched his style, culminating in what scholars now refer to as the “Krishna school” of Kurumba art.
Krishna’s paintings vividly depicted the life and culture of the Alu Kurumba people, who were once hunter-gatherers and honey collectors inhabiting the Coonoor and Kotagiri regions. His art served as a visual narrative of the community’s social customs, rituals, and daily activities. KT Gandhirajan, a project officer at the Tamil Virtual Academy, emphasized Krishna’s role in reviving an art form that was once confined to caves and tribal dwellings. Gandhirajan highlighted that while Kurumba art shares geometric similarities with other tribal art forms like Warli from Maharashtra, Kurumba paintings uniquely portray the specific lives of the Alu Kurumba—covering marriage rituals, menarche ceremonies, funeral rites, and ancestral worship.
The colours Krishna used were sourced directly from the forest, reflecting a deep connection to the natural environment. According to Krishna’s wife, Sushila, the pigment for yellow, brown, and purple hues came from the trunk of the Vengai tree; green was derived from crushed Pachaikeeda leaves; earthy reds came from red sand; and black pigment was obtained from the Karimaram tree. This reliance on natural dyes not only lent authenticity to the art but also underscored the community’s intimate relationship with the Nilgiris’ flora and fauna.
Krishna’s paintings focused on three major themes: social life, ritual life, and daily life. Through hundreds of works, he portrayed the Alu Kurumba’s agricultural practices