Pandawani is a monodramatic form of chhatisgarh which originated among the Pradhan gond tribe as a long ballad. Gradally it evolved into a theatre form. In its original form it contained many Gond myths and ethnographic elements. But gradually those elements were weeded out and the theatrical performers adopted the text of the Mahabharata of Sabal Singh Chauhan which is in Avadhi language and written in 'Doha-Choupai' metres. The beauty of the form is every performers improvises the text in his own way and everyone has his own way and everyone has his own style of performance. Pandwani theatre now is estabilished throughout the world. In the year 1984, 1985, 1987 and 1988 Madhya Pradesh Adivasi Lokkala Academy organized Pandwani festivals at Bhopal, Raipur, Durg and Raipur respectively. In this search programme more than 50 pandwani parties were identified. This shows that unlike other folk theatre forms of India, Pandwani is still flourishing.

The author did his post-graduation in economics in the year 1960 from sagar University went to Bastar in 1962 to look after their family business of rice mill. He was fascinated by the tribals and their way of life. While living in Bastar he developed interest in anthropology and culture. Gradually, he developed interest in the tribal culture and various art forms of Central India and since last fortyfive years he has been documenting tribal and folk ways. On the basis of his work which is spread in more than four decades span of time he has planned five books on tribal and folk arts, eight books on folk theatre, four monographs on tribes and three-four books on folk tales and folk songs and ballads. All these works will be appearing soon gradually.
The author has a very large collection of artifacts of his own which includes tribal bronzes from Bastar, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand and West Bengal. He has also a large collection of folk and tribal paintings, artistic wooden tribal combs, tribal ornaments and other ritual objects. He has gifted his collection of terracotta artifacts numbering about six hundred of Central India to the Anthropological survey of India Museum at Bastar.

The author has published fifty articles on various subjects of tribal art, folk theatre, folklore and some tribes. He was the executive committee member of Madhya Pradesh Adivasi Lok Kala Parishad as an expert on tribes for eight years. He was on the advisory board of Choumasa for twenty years, a journal of the M.P Adivasi Lok Kala parishad. He has been a member of South Central Zone Cultural Centre for eight years in all its committees as an expert on tribal and folk culture. Presently, he is engaged in finalizing his works for publishing. He is also working on the encyclopaedia of folklore of North Indian Languages.