PATACHITRA POINT

Ganjifa Art

2009-06-27T08:03:00.000-07:00

The Ganjifa game was a popular pastime of ancient India. Known as the game of cards, Ganjifa found as much favour with the Kings and courtiers as well as with the general masses. Today more than the game it is the art of making Ganjifa that has gained prominence. The artwork on a Ganjifa card is so intricate and artistic; it is no surprise that it is an art form by itself.Our city has a very close relationship with this art form. The leading theory is that the Ganjifa pattern was created in Persia, most likely under the influence of playing cards from the East (probably money-suited decks) and introduced in India by the Mughals. The origin of the term Ganjifa is obscure. Ganj is a Persian term meaning “treasure”, “treasury” or “hoard”. The first mention of the game is made on the Babarnama, the memoir of Babur. The founder of the Mughal dynasty, Emperor Babur, who ruled from 1526 to 1530, reports in his annals, "This evening… Mir Ali Korchi was dispatched to Tattaq (in Sindh) to Shah Hussain. He is fond of the game with cards and had requested some which I have duly sent him." The word used for cards in this text is Ganjifa or the Persian Ganjafeh.The next, more detailed, reference is found in the Ain-I-Akbari, a book written by Abul Fazl Allami towards the end of the 16th century during the reign of the great Mughal emperor Akbar (1542-1605). Abul Fazl devotes a short chapter to the games — Chess and Ganjifa — played by Akbar.

Ramayan Story

2009-06-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

This is an epic poem of courage, magic and humor, containing 18 books and 24,000 verses divided into 500 songs. Set in India, Rama (avatar--incarnation--of the God Vishnu) and his wife Sita have been banished from their kingdom of Kosala for fourteen years, due to a plot by the mother of one of Rama's four brothers to keep Rama from the throne. Rama's brother, Laksmana, accompanies the couple. King Rawana of Ceylon spies the beautiful Sita and creates a plan to abduct her. He sends one of his minions, magically disguised as a golden deer to entice Rama and Laksmana away from Sita. Rama goes after the deer, instructing Laksmana not to leave Sita. Rama brings down the golden deer with his bow and arrow. The golden deer reverts to its original shape and with its dying breath calls out "Help, help, help" in Rama's voice. Sita, hearing Rama's voice, entreats Laksmana to go and help Rama. When he refuses, she goads him into leaving. Laksmana draws a magic circle around Sita and tells her that she must stay inside it until he and Rama return. When Sita is alone, Rawana appears, disguised as an ailing old man, who begs Sita for help. When Sita steps out of the magic circle to aid the old man, the old man changes into Rawana and abducts Sita, telling her that Rama is dead. He rises in the air with her and flies to his Kingdom.

Raas Leela

2009-06-27T07:48:00.000-07:00

Raas Leela was the favorite pastime or sport of Shri Krishna. In Sanskrit, it is known as ‘kreeda’ or activity. As soon as Janmashtami arrives, one of the most famous aspect the strikes us is the Raas Leela. It is indeed one of the most important aspects of the celebration of Krishnashtami. The divine sport of Raas Leela was enjoyed by the Lord with his gopis on the banks of river Yamuna in Vrindavan. One of the most loved gopi of Krishna was Radhaji. She was closest to Him and her love for the God was complete and in its pristine form. Even today, various renowned theater groups perform raas leelas. Different plays are staged with famous actors playing the lead roles to mark the birth anniversary of Lord Krishna. It is usually performed in the ‘brij bhasa’.From the age of ten, the God started playing raas leela with his gopis. And all the popular raas leelas were performed in the city of Vrindavan. There is also a legend behind the raas leela of Shri Krishna. According to Hindu mythology, the Lord was greatly loved by the gopis or devotees. They were so engrossed in Him that they forgot all their worldly chores and remained ‘magna’ or engrossed with Him. Their love was divine love or ‘prerna’. While performing the raas leela, the Lord was center staged with all the gopis surrounding Him. They all danced and sang in the glory of the Nandgopal. The raas leela was performed on the full moon night particularly during the season of autumn. Even the Gods and goddesses witnessed this divine performance from the sky as they all blessed them with flowers. One night, Lord disappeared to teach a lesson to all the gopis as they considered themselves to be superior to other women of the village. At that time of separation or ‘virah’, gopis sang ‘Gopika Gitam’ and pleaded God to come back. After many requests, God did come back.

Putana Vadha

2009-01-17T02:41:00.001-08:00

While Nanda Maharaja was returning home, he considered Vasudeva's warning that there might be some disturbance in Gokula. Certainly the advice was friendly and not false. So Nanda thought, "There is some truth in it." Therefore, out of fear, he began to take shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead. It is quite natural for a devotee in danger to think of Krsna because he has no other shelter. When a child is in danger, he takes shelter of his mother or father. Similarly, a devotee is always under the shelter of the Supreme Personality of Godhead, but when he specifically sees some danger, he remembers the Lord very rapidly.

Mahishasuramardini - Goddess

2009-01-17T02:20:00.000-08:00

There are several Durga puja stories, legends and mythologies. Some of them are about the goddess herself, while others are about Devi Durga’s devotees. These fascinating and marvelous stories have been taking rounds since ages through the oral tradition of literature. The most important story on Ma Durga has been written in ancient scriptures and textbooks. Read about that legend of Maa Durga by clicking on the link. Apart from this traditional story, there are several other renditions about the origin of Durga Pooja. One such story talks about the Pandavas, the famous five brothers from Mahabharata, the great Indian epic.

After losing in a game of dice, the Pandavas go into exile for 12 years and one year in disguise. While disguising themselves, they hid their royal clothes and weapons under a Shammi tree. On the day of Dashami (Dussehra), the Pandavas complete one year of disguised exile, and expose their true identities. It celebrates their true victory over evil and hence the day is known as Vijaya Dashami. Another famous story is related to Lord Rama. Before commencing the battle in Lanka against Ravana, Lord Rama started Chandi Puja (An incarnation of Maa Durga) with hundred and nine lotus flowers. To test the devotion and surrender of Lord Rama, Devi Durga hid one of the lotuses. When time came to pray to the goddess, Rama found himself short of one lotus flower. In order to make up for it, he surrenders his own eye. Immediately, Maa Durga comes out and saves his son and promises him victory. The Durga Puja held during this time is known as Bosonto Utsav.

There are several more stories on the occasion of Durga Puja. Each Durga temple in India has an enchanting and fascinating legend behind it. It is not possible to accumulate these rich and diverse stories in one written page. Maa Durga has always blessed her devotees and taken greatest care of them. Durga Puja is a way to honor this Goddess who is the Mahishasur Mardini and the beautiful and gracious mother.

Krishna Theme

2008-12-27T03:58:00.000-08:00

The gopis of Vrndavana were so attached to Krsna that they were not satisfied simply with the rasa dance at night. They wanted to associate with Him and enjoy His company during the daytime also. When Krishna went to the forest with His cowherd boy friends and cows, the gopis did not physically take part, but their hearts went with Him. And because their hearts went, they were able to enjoy His company through strong feelings of separation. To acquire this strong feeling of separation is the teaching of Lord Caitanya and His direct disciplic succession of Gosvamis. When we are not in physical contact with Krsna, we can associate with Him like the gopis, through feelings of separation. Krsna's transcendental form, qualities, pastimes, and entourage are all identical with Him. There are nine different kinds of devotional service. Devotional service to Krishna in feelings of separation elevates the devotee to the highest perfectional level, to the level of the gopis.

Art and Crafts of Orissa

2008-10-18T09:16:00.000-07:00

Rooted in custom, tradition and utility, the Oriyan craftsman is the vibrant link in an unbroken chain, which embraces both producers and consumers within a socio-religious framework. Throughout its history, Orissa nurtured a rich and variegated religious heritage. The interaction, which followed the rise and fall of different movements-Jainism, Buddhism, Shaivism, Vaishnavism-provided a remarkable cradle for cultural development. A strong tribal element ran side by side with religion and is still reflected in many of the crafts of Orissa.

Glimpses of the craft technologies that date back over several thousand years can be had from the shop windows of Bhubaneswar. The tie and dye or ikat technique of Orissa is, for instance, an ancient intricate process of dyeing yarn in segments to produce bold, beautiful patterns on the loom while weaving.

Wherever one goes in Orissa, one can find almost the entire range of arts and crafts in the market places of the main towns and cities. Co-operative societies have played an important role in preserving the rich craft heritage of the State by ensuring easy access to customers and thus sustaining a continuous demand for products. But perhaps the secret of Orissa's crafts lies in their fascinating combination of beauty and utility-a tribute to the vision of the craftsmen. Instead of being merely decorative reminders of another age, the crafts of Orissa are gloriously alive-suited to modern tastes and yet retaining all the essential traditional links with a checkered past.

Folk Paintings Or Patachitra

2008-10-18T09:07:00.000-07:00

The patachitra, the folk painting of Orissa, has a history of great antiquity. The `Patachitra` paintings exhibit the use of strong line and brilliant colors. These are religious paintings which covers themes and events from Indian mythology and Puranas and mainly made on silk or on old cotton glued with paper. Patachitras are painted in a regular series like Dashavatar of Vishnu and activities of Lord Rama & Krishna etc. The Patachitra paintings have a basic resemblance to the old murals of Kalinga region dating back to 5th century B C. The best Patachitra paintings are found in and around Puri, especially in the village of Raghurajpur. The artists colony, known as Chitrakar Sahi, is in the vicinity of the local temple.

‘Pattachitra’ - It's Past and Present

2008-07-07T08:54:00.000-07:00

The ‘Pattachitra’, one of the fascinating art form of Orissa has a tradition that goes back centuries. Soaked in puranic culture and classical romances, with vibrant colors, superb craftsmanship, simplicity in design the ‘Pattachitra’ has become a distinct art form and has captured the imagination of artists and art lovers alike. The term ‘Pattachitra’ has its origin from the Sanskrit. ‘Patta’ means ‘vastra’ or cloth and ‘chitra’ means paintings. Therefore, ‘Pattachitra’ means paintings on cloth. The use of cloth for painting has been in vogue in India from early period. So also was the case with Orissa. It is said that painted thin clothes were sent to China from Orissa during the rule of Bhaumakars and the craftsmanship was highly appreciated.

These paintings are prepared by the traditional chitrakaras. These chitrakaras observe some rituals while working on these paintings. They too observed some austerities i.e. the women are not allowed to touch the painting. The chitrakar to be strictly vegetarian during the period of painting and he ought to sleep on the ground without using any bed. He has to put on a new dhoti while working on the paintings. After the painting is completed, a Mahasnan is arranged through chanting, of mantras and then asper the tradition placed for worship and darshan. After the completion of anasar, the paintings are preserved at the store of the temple.

As an elaboration of this painting tradition, paintings on the triad known as Yatri pati were prepared in large number and were sold to the pilgrims coming to Puri. For all practical purposes it serves as a souvenir for their visit to Puri Dham. There is a strong belief that a journey to Puri is incomplete unless the pilgrim took back with him some patis of Lord Jagannath, some beads, some cane sticks and Nirmalya. As there was a demand for Yatri Patis, so the chitrakars adopt it as a source of maintaining their livelihood and prepare Yatri Patis in large numbers for commercial sale.

Since the ‘Pattachitra’ has its origin in the Jagannath temple, the triad and the great cult have always been the main theme of the pattas. Lord Jagannath is depicted as Maha Vishnu and the way of worship is shaped mostly in vaisnavite tradition. It is for this reason that most of the themes of traditional ‘Pattachitra’ are mystical stories from Ramayan and Mahabharat including that of Lord Jagannath, their perennial source of inspiration.

The preparation of pattas on canvas for painting is very interesting. It is indigenously prepared. A piece of cloth is washed neatly and spread out over the surface of a cot or on the verandah floor. The tamarind seed is powdered and some water is put on it to prepare a special gum. This gum is applied over this piece of cloth. Before this gum dries up, another piece of the cloth of same size is placed on it and a fresh coating of gum is pasted on it. Then the patta is allowed to dry in the sun. After it is dried, a paste of soft white stone powder which looks like chalk powder, and tamarind seed gum, mixed in an ideal proportion applied on both sides. After both side dry completely the huge piece of cloth is cut into required sizes. It is a known fact that unless the chitrakaras are ordered for big Pattachitras, they prepared patta chitras of normal sizes. After cutting to sizes, the next work is to polish it to make them smooth and suitable for painting. The polishing is first made with a rough stone and then it is polished with a pebble whose surface is smooth. The polishing requires long hours of work. The work of preparation of the pati for painting is done solely by the woman folk of the chitrakar families. Then over the polished cloth which look off white in color, the chitrakar start painting on it.

The colors used are bright and primarily white, red, yellow, blue, green and black. The red is used predominantly for the back ground. These colors are prepared out of the natural ingredients. White is prepared from powder of conch-sheel, yellow from Haritala, a kind of stone, red from geru (Dheu) and Hingula black from burning lamp and cocoanut shell and green from leaves. The artists execute a sequential procedure for preparation of the paintings. The colors are of single tones were ever used. First the border and the sketch is drawn on the patis either in pencil or in light color. The artists put correct lines to make the figure more prominent. The lines are broad and steady, and then the color is applied. The visual appeal of a patta painting is in its color combination. The human figures are generally presented frontally. But the face, legs are shown side-wise but the elongated eyes are drawn from the front side. Sharp nose and round chins are prominently depicted. The typical hair style, clothing, ornamentation, beard and mustaches are used for different persons, so that there will not been any confusion to recognize which figure is a king, minister sage, royal priest, common man, the God, the Goddesses and the like. A decorative border is drawn on all sides to give it a frame like look. In this painting overlapping is avoided as far as possible. However, the sense of far and near is neglected here. The typical face style makes this painting different from other school of paintings. The paintings are conspicuous for their elegance charm and aesthetic appeal. Central focus of the painting is the expression of the figures and the emotion they portray, the strong color only reinforce them. Traditionally, three types of brushes were used. They are broad, medium and fine. These are prepared out of the hairs of the buffalo, calf and the mouse respectively. Some scholars believed that in course of time, the chitrakara family went on increasing and the Puri town could not provide them enough work. So some chitrakaras left Puri and went to the nearby villages, there they developed yajmani relationship with other caste people. The chitrakaras did various types of paintings on the walls of their patrons on festive occasions.

The ‘Pattachitra’ style has been elaborated and applications are made on other items besides the Patis. Paintings are made on wooden and bamboo boxes and on the mask and the pots, Ganjapa, typical playing cards is also painted in this style. Now-a-days, the patta painting has been recognized as one of the popular art form of Orissa. With the advancement of time, a lot of changes have been noticed in the preparation, color, theme, and approach to the subject and in, the market-ability scenario of patta paintings. It has not been confined to art for art sake alone. It is now accepted as a craft. The Jagannath yatri patis, which were very popular previously, is not any more painted in plenty. Their place has been taken over by various other souvenirs like laminated pictures of the Triad, Finger-ring, locket etc. No more the artists are willing to prepare the colors from the natural ingredients as it is labor some and difficult to prepare. Now the synthetic colors (bottled posture color) available in the bazaar are used. Even the new generations of artists don’t know the preparation of colors. Similarly the traditional parties are replaced with tassar silk cloth. As the tassar is a finished cloth, the painters don't have to put in extra labour to make it suitable for painting as in the case of cloth. In place of the traditional brushes, the chitrakaras now depend on the brushes sold in the market. The patta paintings have made a slow journey from the temple precincts to the walls of drawing rooms, lounges of big hotel and guest houses. The subject of the paintings has also got wide variations. In addition to the stories from Ramayan, Mahabharat and Vesas of Jagannath, new themes on the life and philosophy of Lord Buddha, pictures on Jainism, Jesus Christ and important historical events are also finding place in patta paintings.

Even the chitrakaras are ready to produce the paintings on any fanciful composition on the subjects whatever the customer desire and place orders. Instead of simple renderings the paintings are now decorated with more ornamentation in order to attract the modern art connoisseur.

The major concentration of the artists and the art form is in Raghurajpur Dandasahi of Puri Sadar Block and Balisahi Chitrakarasahi, Dolamandap sahi, Markendeswar sahi in Puri Municipality, Paralakhemundi, Digapahandi, Chikiti, Berhampur, Dharakot, Bargarh, Sonpur and Keonjhar etc. From among these sites, Raghurajpur, a village about 12 km. from Puri on Puri-Bhubaneswar road near Chandanpur has attracted the attention of the world as a Heritage village. It has been declared as a Rural Tourism Centre. All the house-holds in the village are artists. The village holds the unique distinction of having maximum concentration of ‘Pattachitra’ artists. As per a local survey at least 22 households are pursuing this art form but in practice all most all house-holds in the village are linked with the ‘Pattachitra’ business, they may be artists or promoter. We all know that the chitrakara families were traditionally preparing patta chitras as their hereditary work. Now this art form is not being confined to that caste alone. People from other castes are also adopting this as their profession. Therefore the number of painters is multiplied beyond the traditional craft guild. However there is no organized group for marketing for disseminating the knowledge from one generation to another. Therefore this is centered round the guru. Heavy marketing concentration in and around Puri and Bhubaneswar has automatically paralyzed patta painting activities in other villages. Therefore baring some, the income of other artists is marginal and seasonal.

There is no regular income source from paintings. So the savings is absent. Another peculiar trend has been evolved that every youth instead of aspiring to be an ardent artist in patta paintings, want to be small trader in ‘Pattachitra’ business, perhaps as the middlemen, one gets more profit than the artist who is either a illiterate or semi literate, as per the present rural scenario. It is because of lack of knowledge on scope and potential of art form dependence on external support for marketing, absence of organized platform to market the product and the poverty of the artist create some hindrance in the field. Now what is needed is a regular training and continuation of Guru shishya parampara and a concerted effort to sell the painting of the artists so that they will not be cheated by the middlemen. By that way the art will thrive and the artist will have smile on his face.

By Rabindranath Sahu

National Awardee 94'

LEARN 'PATTACHITRA'

2008-07-07T08:49:00.000-07:00

‘Pattachitra’ is one of Orissa’s oldest folk painting styles that has its lineage from the region’s majestic temple culture.

The word 'Patta' and 'Chitra' are Sanskrit words meaning canvas and picture respectively. The use of thick natural colors on the textured surface of Palm leaf or Clothes creates a rich elemental look that cannot be matched by any of the contemporary oil paintings or portraits. This art form is defined by its rich use of color, its creative motifs and designs, and its portrayal of pure and simple themes. The art depicts a combination of folk and classical elements.

However, the art form has been restricted to the life of rural and tribal people. Because of the lack of knowledge on scope and potential of this art form, the artists remain in abysmally poor conditions. There is no regular income source from paintings. Because of these factors, this art form, though once popular, is slowly on its way to extinction.

This is a small attempt from me to spread awareness about this art. I am an amateur artist of this art form. I conduct workshops for interested people on painting ‘Pattachitras’.