Bheem and Narmada River

Adorned with the intricate designs of GOND tribal painting style , this painting depicts the folk story of Gond tribe about Bheem's attempt to stop the flow of Narmada river. As per the folk story prevalent among Gond tribals, river Narmada was born in the Michael mountain region out of the sweat produced from the neck of Lord Shiva. She was growing up as a daughter of Maikal , the king of mountains. When her marriage was fixed with 'Sonbhadra', her childhood friend ' Johila' had borrowed the jewellery of Narmada and impersonated herself as Narmada before the family of 'Sonbhadra ' and could get married to 'Sonbhadra' . Angered river Narmada cursed 'Johila' and started flowing out of the region. Bheem tried to stop her flow by pulling together two mountains namely, ' Duti Donger' and ' Lingo Donger' . However, river Narmada escaped beneath these two mountains.