Odish's Patachitra Art

Published in "The Hindu Business Line"



Patachitra: A play of color



Earthy freshness combined with a brilliant melange of colours and delicacy of touch define this Oriyan art form, the history of which may be traced back to the 8th century or even earlier. The patachitras of Orissa are iconic folk painting with history and antiquity aplenty. The creations include wall and manuscript paintings executed on silk and cotton fabric.

One of India’s earliest and most cherished forms of indigenous paintings, the Patachitra, (derived from Sanskrit: pata means cloth and chitra means painting) it is claimed, was derived from some primitive form of Aboriginal art of Orissa or perhaps, its neighbours. However, historical records point to the art having originated in the Temple town of Puri in Orissa, and more specifically associated with its reigning deity, Lord Jagannath. The Jagannath cult, it is believed, holds the key to the emergence and development of this art form. The ritual of giving a holy bath to the three painted wooden images of Jagannath and his siblings result in the discolouration of the idols. The idols are therefore removed from the sanctum sanctorum for repainting, for the duration of which period the patachitras depicting the trio of them, occupy the sanctorum, so as not to have the Divine seat vacant.

Jagannath & his siblings, patachitra art originated with them

The motifs are thematic and usually drawn from Indian mythology, the Puranas and the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. The creations are often depicted as a series, as for instance, the Dashavatar, Krishna Leelas and so on. The life of Krishna, the fountainhead of innumerable anecdotes, in particular, are portrayed in a riot of colours that are at once eye-catching. The most popular paintings, however, continue to be of Jagannath and his siblings Subhadra and Balabhadra. Though the pantheon of Hindu gods and deities may be the central theme of the paintings, they are seldom divine-centric in the way they are presented. Rather, most of them are story boards of tales associated with the various gods, aesthetically created within richly framed borders.

Apart from the mythological stories, other motifs are also featured in the paintings. The paintings, while thematically simple, are often intricately designed with an extraordinary system of line formations in vibrant colours, displaying the artists’ prowess for capturing the minutest detail most vividly.

The patachitra paintings resemble in some measure the ancient murals of Kalinga region, dating back to the 5th century and are executed on silk or cotton cloth, specially prepared for the purpose. The patas or specially treated cloth were originally prepared and worked upon by temple artists known as mahapatras or maharanas and the art received royal patronage. The best patachitra paintings are found in Chitrakar Sahi or the artists’ colony in Raghurajpur and Dandshahi villages of, Puri, Orissa. The ancestral sketchbook of patterns that each artist has, is one of their most prized possessions, worshipped along with the family gods, reveals Govind Maharana, a young artist from Raghurajpur, following in the footsteps of his forefathers and who has pursued studies up to class XI.

Elaborating on the patachitra style, Govind explains that the traditional paintings have a symmetrical pattern to them involving a series of steps, from “preparation” of fabric to the execution of design and final painting. The process of preparing the pata or canvas is one of the most painstaking task, lasting a few days. The base is prepared by sticking together two pieces of fabric of equal measurement. The adhesive, a paste, used for sticking the cloth pieces, is specially prepared from soft white chalk powder, glue and tamarind seeds. This mixture of ingredients is combined with water and kept in an earthen pot, in a process known as niryas kalpa. The canvas so prepared is then ironed out using a heavy piece of polished stone. Thus prepared, the canvas obtains a tensile strength which is at the same time smooth and semi-absorbent to allow it to be painted upon. The painting begins once the cloth is completely dry.

The painting itself is a laborious task that is done on this surface using natural colors that are vegetable and mineral-derived. Black, for instance is obtained from the soot of burning oil lamps. White is prepared from seashells that are crushed and boiled. Red and yellow are obtained from crushing the hingal and haritali stones. Color combinations play a very important role in patachitra paintings, with accent being on bright colours. However, chemical dyes have begun to be used in recent times, especially when creating the paintings on Tussar silk, reveals Swain.

The base colours used in almost all paintings are black, red, blue and yellow. Conventionally, red serves as background, say Swain and Govind. The borders are first drawn in whatever colour and then the main drawing is sketched, not in pencil, but with a fine brush, in red or yellow colour. The paintings are then done in the base colours and completed with fine brush strokes to give a pen-effect. The finished painting is then held over a charcoal fire and lacquer coating applied to give it a mild sheen and accord it durability.

A typical painting that is not very intricate or large, takes a week to complete. “This is roughly measures 36 inches by 6 inches. If we paint the Dasha Mahavidya of Goddess Durga on a 27” X 18”, for instance, it would take 20 days to finish. Usually a single artist executes an entire painting, but sometimes we do have two or three of them work on a single, elaborate piece. Larger paintings take up to even an entire month to complete!” reveals Swain.

Over three hundred houses with at least five hundred artists, reside in Raghurajpur today and they are actively engaged in turning out these pieces over a period of approximately eight months. Selling of the finished products happens over the remaining four months, the peak sales taking place during the winters when tourist influx is at its highest in Orissa, says Govind. “While patachitra are very popular with all tourists, the talachitra, or talapatachitras, a variation of the same art form, but which is done on palm leaf, is preferred by foreign tourists. Here the technique is slightly different in that colours are seldom used and the main painting is engraved in black, using sharp iron pens, on 2” palm strips that are linked together by means of thread, to create a scroll painting.”

In more recent times, some decades ago, patachitra artists diversified the range of materials on which they craft the pata themes. The motifs have thus found their way on tussar silk, wooden boxes, bowls, wooden toys, coconut shells and wooden doors and panels. The letters of the English alphabet cut in wooden blocks are painted in patachitra style to cater to the international market. “We paint even playing cards which we call Ganjifa, and greeting cards for various occasions in this style,” say Govind and, Keshav Swain, a young artist from the same village who has had formal education up to class X. “We are especially given orders to make wedding cards for some niche clients and these are priced anywhere between Rs.200 and Rs.1000 or even above,” says Govind, flaunting one such card on a maroon-background, ordered by a marriage party from Calcutta.

If present trends are anything to go by, the ancient art of patachitra is here to stay, being revived not only in its pure, traditional form, but also in a style that blends the conventional with the modern, driven by market forces.



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