When I was a child, almost every year the calendar that adorned the living room wall was a collection of bright, enchanting drawings that captivated me more than any other photos. I know now that I grew up looking at the ancient art of Pattachitra and feel fortunate to be able to now reflect on its richness.
Pattachitra was born in the eastern Indian state of Odisha as far back as 5th century BC, and also spread to West Bengal. Patta (cloth) chitra (picture), is the traditional art of cloth-based scroll painting famous for its vibrant colors, intricate patterns and mythological stories. The portrayal of simple themes through creative motifs and designs are characteristic of Pattachitra, which in itself is a broader term for different categories of ancient paintings separated by medium. There’s Bhittichitra which means wall paintings, and Tala Pattrachitra or palm leaf engravings. In Odisha, the two groups who patronized this craft were the Jagannath’s and Vaishnava’s. The basic Pattachitra tales revolved around their beliefs and ideologies. Hindu gods such as Krishna, Vishnu, Shiva, Hanuman, and Hindu goddesses such as Radha, Parvati and Sita were widely used to depict stories which were related to Hindu scriptures and texts.
In ancient Bengali narrative art, Pattachitra paintings served as a visual storytelling device during the performance of a song by the Patuas, who would travel from one village to another singing and showing the scrolls to earn a living. Stories were painted on long scrolls by painters who gradually unfurled them while narrating those tales. Pattachitra in Bengal evolved down the course of history to embody and reflect oral traditions, folktales and mythological stories.
A key difference in Pattachitra art of Odisha and West Bengal is that in Bengal silk is used, while artists in Odisha use cotton fabric. The form and treatment of the subject is also quite different. The paintings in Odisha are extremely intricate and delicate, while Pattachitra in Bengal is characterized by bold lines and brevity in representation. Moreover, in addition to mythological stories and religious representations (that we see in abundance in the Pattachitra of Odisha), artists in Bengal would also paint subjects such as news, family planning and various social messages. Use of natural colors in Bengali Pattachitra art is common and their favorite colors are white, yellow, blue, green, red, brown and black. In Odisha, artists primarily used black, red, yellow and orange, while indigo was added as a color much later.
A mystical art
Today, Pattachitra artists have expanded their art to experiment with various other subjects and media, while preserving the original quality and the classical aesthetics. The origin of Pattachitra paintings is quite mystical, and can traced to a story where it is said that when the son of the (then) King’s highest priest died, Brahma asked the king to paint a lifelike likeness of a boy so that he could breathe life into him again. This became the first painting. We don’t know if this really happened, but what’s true is that the art of Pattachitra is rooted in religion with its key theme being Lord Jagannath, an incarnation of Lord Krishna.
Paintings of the three most important Odiya deities – Lord Jagannath, Lord Balabhadra and Maa (Mother) Subhadra – were used as substitutes for worship on days when the Jagannath temple’s doors were shut for the ritual bath of the deity. Typical scenes and figures like Krishna, gopis, elephants, trees, and other creatures in Vrindavan are seen in these paintings. Krishna is always painted in blue and Gopis in light pink, purple or brown. Glimpses of this art can be still seen in the murals of Puri, Konark and Bhuwaneshwar regions. Raghurajpur, a small village near Puri is the birthplace of Pattachitra paintings and has captured the attention of the world as a heritage village.
The Pattachitra technique and materials
Traditionally, it was the men who were the painters or chitrakars, while the female members of the artisan group prepared the glue, the canvas, filled in the colors and then helped the artist give a final lacquer coating. The master hand, i.e. the male artist, drew the initial lines and then gave the final finishing touches.
Patta paintings are done on small strips of cloth, which is either made of silk or cotton. To prepare the canvas the artists coat the cloth with a mixture of chalk and gum and then rub it with special stones. On drying, the cloth canvas gets a leathery texture on which artists can paint using vegetable colors. Most artists are experts and instead of drawing pencil lines they draw directly with the brush using faint colors. Following this the colors are filled in and once the paint sets the master hand gives the final finish before the glazing. The lacquer coating done by holding the painting over a fire so that the back is exposed to heat.
Pattachitra is a disciplined form of art and come with a set of rules. We will almost never see a Pattachitra painting showing landscapes, perspectives and distant views. Everything is shown in close juxtaposition. There is a lot of use of decorations of flowers and foliage. A floral border is a must in Pattachitra paintings, and so is the use of natural colors, restricting them to a single color palette. This creates a distinct look and feel that is typical to Pattachitra and cannot be replicated.
Palm leaf Pattachitra
The Tala Pattachitra, or Pattachitra on a palm leaf is unique to Odisha. Palm leaves taken from the tree are left to harden and then sewn together to create a bigger canvas. Black or white ink is used to etch images and fill grooves to create equal sized panels on the leaves. This allows the artist to fold the leaves like a fan and preserve the art better. It also allows the artist to be more creative in how he uses the folded leaves to depict his art.
Though it’s an ancient art dating back thousand of years, Pattachitra paintings in a variety of forms are still being purchased and re-distributed, with some even being purchased by celebrities and political leaders owing to their brilliant colors and extremely detailed work. In 2015, our premier Mr. Narendra Modi giften the then French president with a Pattachitra painting and it was hugely appreciated and admired. Today we can see Pattachitra on sarees, bags, wall hangings, bookmarks and even on showpieces.
About the author: Sushmita Vobbilisetty is the concept creator at Chitrapata. She has a deep understanding of old masters, modern, and contemporary artworks. Sushmita is an expert in evaluating the market value and fair value of art based on heritage, availability, sell-through rate, market performance over time, secondary sales track record, and other key factors. Sushmita frequently predicts the bidding prices for day sales and evening auctions hosted by leading art houses.
About us: Chitrapata is a digital atelier with an in-house generative art technology platform enhanced with machine learning and artificial intelligence capabilities. Our vision is to spark thoughts, conversations, and debates among different groups. Visit “About us” section to know more about our philosophy, vision, bio, artist statement, story and technology process.
Image credit: DreamStudio AI, StableDiffusion.
