Richa Maheshwari and Jnaneshwar Das bring India’s indigenous artistry to Burning Man with “Navagunjara Reborn,” a breathtaking installation that fuses tradition, myth, and resilience.
When the desert winds sweep across Black Rock City next week, among the towering art installations that punctuate the Nevada horizon will stand a creature unlike any the Burning Man community has seen before: a mythical hybrid from the heart of Odisha, India.
“Navagunjara Reborn: The Phoenix of Odisha,” conceived by engineer-turned-social entrepreneur Richa Maheshwari and Indian American academic Jnaneshwar “JD” Das, is one of 12 international projects awarded the prestigious Burning Man Honoraria Grant this year.
Burning Man, the signature annual gathering, is scheduled to take place in Black Rock City, the temporary city constructed in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, between August 24 and September 1.
Navagunjara is a sculptural marvel that fuses two powerful myths: the phoenix, an emblem of renewal in various ancient cultures, and the Navagunjara, an Odia form of Vishnu composed of nine distinct animals.
The work of Maheshwari and Das is a tribute to resilience, unity, and diversity. Built in collaboration with indigenous artisans from Odisha, the installation is a living bridge between ancient craft traditions and global audiences.
Maheshwari’s journey to Burning Man is as unconventional as her art. Born into a family constantly on the move — her father’s banking career ensured new towns every few years — she grew up with the ability to adapt but without a deep sense of rootedness.
“There was no one festival I saw every year at home,” she recalled in a recent interview with The American Bazaar in Bangalore, where she has lived for several years. “No one food I got used to. It was very mixed. I think there was something hollow inside.”
After earning her engineering degree in 2004, Maheshwari joined SAP in Bangalore, thriving in a comfortable corporate role for nearly 12 years. Yet, the urge to do something “more impactful” kept tugging at her.
“In 2021, I decided to take a sabbatical,” she says. “I started exploring remote India, beginning with my home state of Odisha. The more I traveled into tribal communities, the more I was impressed — the way priorities are shifted, the absence of material greed. Yes, there’s poverty, but within their world, it feels like a happy bubble.”
Her explorations revealed a treasure trove of indigenous knowledge: 62 distinct tribal communities, each with unique weaving, textile, food, and craft traditions — many fiercely protective of their cultural heritage. “There are 17 such communities that we work with,” she says. “Each bringing their own fresh, unique identity. These guys don’t even care for a unique identity… They always operate as a community.”
Maheshwari described their work as “unadulterated” and“generationally intact without external coaching.”
Mission to revive craft
This immersion led Maheshwari to found Boito, a design collective that co-creates with indigenous artisans, transforming traditional craft elements into high-fashion garments and art pieces for global audiences.
Boito’s work is about more than aesthetic transformation. As “we work with the community to onboard and facilitate,” she says, “we handhold, we co-design [and] co-create.” For Maheshwari, it’s an economic and cultural lifeline. “If we sell a lot of a particular textile, part of the sales goes directly back to the community,” she says. “We want to ensure the next generation continues these crafts and benefits from them.”
The core inspiration for “Navagunjara Reborn” comes from a lesser-known episode of the Odia Mahabharata. While in exile, Arjuna encounters a towering beast composed of nine animals: a rooster’s head, peacock’s neck, human arm, elephant’s foreleg, lion’s torso, bull’s hump, serpent’s tail, tigress’s hind leg, and deer’s other hind.
Initially poised to attack, Arjuna halts when he realizes it is a manifestation of Krishna, symbolizing divine unity in diversity and the need to surrender to the unknown.
Maheshwari saw in this story a powerful metaphor for today’s struggles with difference, whether in debates on gender, queerness, or multiculturalism.
“It invites us to embrace what we do not fully understand,” she says.
For Burning Man, Maheshwari and Das reimagined the Navagunjara rising like a phoenix, a symbol of rebirth, from the ashes. The work combines Odisha’s craft forms at an unprecedented scale:
- Dhokra (lost-wax metal casting) for the tigress’s leg
- Sabai grass weaving for the rooster’s head
- Pattachitra painting for intricate narrative panels
- Kotpad handloom and indigenous ringa textiles for textile cladding
- Pipli appliqué embroidery for ornamental flourishes
Each component was crafted in its respective village, with artisans working from life-size 2D and 3D prints and scale diagrams. Parts were shipped to the U.S., where Maheshwari’s collaborator, Das, is assembling them on a structural aluminum truss designed to withstand desert winds, and adding engineered lights using solar power generated on the desert.
Das, a fellow Odia, is the Alberto Behar Associate Research Professor at Arizona State University.
Maheshwari says her background in engineering proved invaluable while crafting.
“I don’t have a design mind, but I can hold it all together,” she says. “The scale, the proportions, the structural feasibility — that’s where my technical training comes in.”
Some parts, like the four-foot dhokra leg, required scaling up traditional techniques, stitching together smaller components, and reinforcing them for durability. Others, like the sabai grass rooster’s head, demanded dyeing and weaving at an entirely new magnitude. “Their system of knowledge is unbelievable,” she says. “It’s very limited to their communities. And not much is known to outside world.”
Burning Man’s principles, particularly “decommodification,” mean that Maheshwari participates not as a brand representative but as an artist sharing a community-built gift. Still, she hopes the exposure will spark future collaborations and sales that benefit the artisans.
“My vision is clear: I want our artists in Odisha to have more business at the end of the day,” she says. “I hope that this piece sparks recognition of all that Odisha brings to the world – establishing a deeper appreciation for this timeless land of artists.”
A version of the Navagunjara is also travelling to the Cheongju Craft Biennale, in South Korea, which attracts 3,000 artists from 60 countries, and thereon to Whitworth art gallery in London, as part of a Hyundai Artlab initiative. The Korean version will be adapted in scale and form but retain its multiform craft vocabulary.
Alongside these large-scale pieces, Boito continues to present smaller fashion and design works that reinterpret Odisha’s visual language for modern contexts, from beadwork inspired by the endangered Bonda tribe to contemporary jackets fashioned from traditional ringa textiles.
India is rich in craft traditions — 130 different varieties of handloom alone — yet, as Maheshwari notes, “We present it in a bizarre stationery-selling format that does nothing for our economy.” “Navagunjara Reborn” demonstrates what’s possible when heritage is curated and scaled for high-impact platforms.
By placing Odisha’s indigenous techniques in dialogue with the global creative avant-garde, Maheshwari not only preserves craft knowledge but repositions it as central to conversations about sustainability, identity, and coexistence.
From her base in Bangalore, Maheshwari now splits her time between design studios, artisan villages, and international art venues. She’s quick to point out that her work isn’t charity.
“I want them to see value for their own work and demand a price for it. That’s rightful,” she says.
Garments from Boito’s workshops are luxury statement pieces — priced from ₹50,000 ($571) to ₹200,000 ($2,281) — and have already found international buyers. But beyond commerce, Maheshwari ensures the artisans themselves wear and see their creations modeled, reinforcing pride and cultural continuity. “Every single time we make something,” we take it to the community,” she says.
For the artisans of Odisha, “Navagunjara Reborn” is a rare chance to see their work on one of the world’s most celebrated creative stages. For Burning Man, it’s a reminder that even in the dust of the Nevada desert, ancient voices can rise again — fierce, beautiful, and reborn.