Kutch: The desert region of Kutch is famous for its arts and crafts. Similarly, Odisha is also famous for its various ancient arts. To showcase and sell various arts of Odisha, its artisans have come to the Shrujan LLDC Winter Festival in Kutch. Among these artworks, the 2500-year-old art 'Pattchitra' has attracted everyone.
'Pattachitra' is a traditional, cloth-based scroll painting artwork based in the eastern Indian states of Odisha, West Bengal and parts of Bangladesh. It is known for its intricate details as well as the mythological and folktales inscribed in it. 'Pattachitra' is one of the ancient artworks of Odisha, originally made for religious use and as souvenirs for pilgrims visiting Puri and other temples in Odisha.
'Pattachitra' is an old tradition of Odisha of painting on materials like cloth, paper, leaves and tarpaulin. People from areas like Raghurajpur, Puri, Danda Sahi, Parlakhemundi, Chikiti, Digpahandi, Sonepur, Dharkot in Odisha are associated with this art. In Sanskrit, the word pat means "cloth" and chitra means "picture". Most of these paintings depict stories of Hindu gods and goddesses.
Storytelling through pictures: The art of 'Pattachitra' deals with themes of the narrative didactic nature of storytelling, which are mentioned in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts. So mostly in this art, the story is narrated through pictures. In which the stories of The Bhagavad Gita, The Ramayana, and The Mahabharata are presented in the form of pictures. So the paintings of Lord Jagannath are also shown in this art.
The 'Pattachitra' art is based on Hindu mythology and is particularly inspired by Jagannath and Vaishnavism. All the colours used in these paintings are natural and the paintings are made in a completely old traditional way by the painters i.e., Odissi painters. These Pattachitra themes are mainly on Lord Jagannath and Radha-Krishna. Various guises of Shri Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, temple activities, 10 avatars of Vishnu based on Jayadeva's 'Gita Govinda' and Kama Kujara Navagunjara are also painted.
Typical scenes and figures: The artisans do not use pencils or charcoal for the paintings. Because the artisans are experts, they draw pictures directly with a light red or yellow brush and then fill them with colours. After that, it is given a lacquer coating and the painting becomes glossy. Typical scenes and figures like Krishna, Gopis, elephants, trees and other creatures are found in the paintings. Krishna is always painted in blue and the Gopis are painted in light pink, purple or brown.
Painters use vegetable and mineral colours for factory-made poster colours. They prepare their own colours. White colour is made from conch shells by pulverising, boiling and filtering them in a very dangerous process. 'Hingula', a mineral colour, is used for red. 'Haritala', the king of stone ingredients, is used for yellow, 'Ramaraja' a type of indigo is used for blue. Pure lamp - black colour made by burning coconut shells is used. The brushes used by these 'painters' are also indigenous and are made from the hair of domestic animals. There are brushes made from buffalo neck hair as well as squirrel hair.
Palm leaf paintings: Palm leaf paintings, also known as Tala Pattachitra in Odia, are paintings drawn on palm leaves. First, the palm leaves are taken from the tree and left to harden. This is then made into a canvas. Images are traced using black or white ink to fill the grooves carved on panels of equal size of palm leaves sewn together. These panels can be easily folded like a fan and packed into a compact pile for better preservation. Palm-leaf paintings are often more elaborate.
Rs 500 to Rs 2 lakh: This 'Pattachitra' artwork takes at least 15 days to make it. The rest of the time also depends on the type of various paintings. The samples of this art are priced from Rs 500 to Rs 2 lakh. However, the prices of gift articles range from Rs 100 to Rs 2000. This art can also be used as decoration in people's homes, now various gift articles of Pattachitra have also come. Which are made from natural materials like paper, wood, cow dung etc. In which pen stands, toys, temples of Lord Jagannath, birds, various hangings, showpiece frames, lanterns, cups, elephant toys etc. are also made.
The artisans' families have been associated with the art of Pattachitra for 7 generations and are making efforts to ensure the existence of the art. Talking about the income, the artisans said that the income in this gift article art is not much but we do not want to put this art down either. Because this is their tradition.
