AUDIO VISUAL SCROLLING ART
Sometimes, monotonous daily life, work pressure, or daily citizenship hassles lead to exhaustion, and readymade colourful entertainment often fails to offer true refreshment. Occasionally, I manage to set aside a few hours from my daily schedule to explore nearby places and rejuvenate myself.
Recently, I have visited a small village, Nayagram, in West Medinipur, known for its amusing heritage of art & culture, and explored a lot. An Art, history, tradition, and socio-economic life of a community, which is inheriting the art and culture in their blood from generation to generation.
PLACE: NAYA, PINGLA, WEST MIDNAPUR, WEST BENGAL
Naya is a village of the Pingla Block in the West Medinipur of West Bengal. The distance between Kolkata and Nayagram is 182 Km by road. The Nearest Railway Station is Balichak of Kharagpur Division of South Eastern Railway. The village is known for its arts and culture. 150- 160 families of ‘born artists’ are living there. Their sole occupation is art. The artists belong to either the Hindu or the Muslim religion, but all use the common surname or title of "Chitrakar." Their unique art is called "Pattachitra," and the artists themselves are known as "Patua.". Due to its unique art form, the village is known as "Patachitra Gram." This community is also noted for portraying national harmony among different religions through art and culture.
Coming back from Nayagram, I have read about the Pattachitra Art. It’s involvement in the socio-economic aspect of ancient India, and to know how our culture is spontaneous, and the inner reflection of people. As an amateur traveller, I’m attempting to shed light on every aspect of my visit to share the essence of this remarkable place as well as the ancient Pattachitra Act.
PATTACHITRA
The speciality of Potochitra art is the painting on the cloth using the colours extracted from natural sources. Chitra means picture, and Pot means cloth. Actually, the word ‘Patta’ or ‘Pat’ originated from the Sanskrit word "Patta", which means a piece of cloth.
ORIGIN
It is an ancient art form that originated in Orissa, inspired by Lord Jagannath and Vaishnavas.
I met veteran Chitrakar Mr Shyamsundar Chitrakar of Noagram, and he told me that conventionally, it is said that one of the sons of Viswakarma is the originator of the Patachitra Art. While reading various papers on Pattachitra, I came to know that the 13th-century Sanskrit text Brahma Vaivarta Purana also mentions that one of the nine sons of Vishwakarma was the ancestor of this form of art.
Bengal also inherited this culture of Art. Some historians said that Patachitra Art started in Bengal in the 10th or 11th century AD. But the physical evidence was found in the 18th century CE.
BENGAL POTOCHITRA
The Bengal Patachitra is divided into several different characteristics like Durga Pat, Chalchitra, Tribal Patachitra, Medinipur Patachitra, i.e., Nayagr, and Kalighat Patachitra. The subject matter of Bengal Patachitra is mostly mythological, religious stories, folk tradition, and various social issues.
The Kalighat Patachitra is also a known tradition of Bengal Patachitra besides the Nayagram. A group of Patuas settled and lived near Kalighat Temple. They created the pictures from the religious illustration of the goddess Kali to include the various features of daily life and portraits of "babus" and "bibis" of the 19th Century. Their simple, bold, and bright colour painting profoundly influenced Jamini Roy, an eminent artist of the 20th century, and he fondly adopted the Kalighat Potochitra style and developed the same in his own vast artistic work.
VARIOUS ELEMENTS OF PATTACHITRA ART.
CANVAS: Chitra means picture, and Pot means cloth. Actually, the word ‘Pot’ originated from the Sanskrit word "Patta", which means a piece of cloth. The different Motifs are made on the cloth. They use cloth as the canvas of their art. The artists created their own scroll canvas, which usually takes a week or two to make and paint with colours of local and natural origin that were kept in broken coconut shells. After completion, the Pattachitra is a rolled-up scroll of different sizes, ranging from 10 to 40 feet long, depending on the type of story of the Chitra. The canvas is bound with two wooden sticks at both ends.
COLOUR:
Colours are extracted from different natural sources like leaves, flowers, and fruits i.e, they extract saffron or red from Lotkon tree seeds, blue from Aparajita flowers, yellow from Turmeric, brown from Segun tree, black from charcoal, green from Seem or Babal tree, white from shankha or atop rice, cow dung cake for grey colour or mud oven, saffron/red brick dust or broken tiles, etc.
During my visit, I came to know about the Laktan tree, also known as the Sindoor tree. The seeds of the Sindoor tree extract the red colour. The seeds are like 'lipsticks,' and for this characteristic, this tree is also known as the 'Lipstick tree.' The scientific name is Bixa orellana. Its seeds are used for food, cosmetics, and medicines. It is the source of the natural orange-red sindoor. This tree originated in South and Central America and has since spread worldwide.
SUBJECT OF THE PATTACHITRA
The subject of the drawings of the pattachitra is stories from Ramayana, Manasa-Mangala, Behula-Lakhindar, etc. Most importantly, this process does not end with the completion of drawing. After making this artwork on a long piece of cloth, the scroll is rolled up.
Then, the artists compose and frame the song based on the story portrayed in their drawings. Then they gradually unroll the cloth and simultaneously tell the story by singing their own song for the people.
They narrate mythological stories or epical stories such as Ramayana and Mahabharata, Puranas, religious texts like the Mangal Kavyas (Manasa, Chandi, and Dharma), Behula and Lakhinder, Caitanya Mahaprabhu, Krishna Leela, and so on. They keep alive the tradition from century to century by telling stories and featuring them with handmade images on the cloth. Imagine the time when most people could not read. They familiarised the masses with our epic through their art and performance.
SOCIO-ECONOMIC ROLE
The Patuas have also played a crucial role in addressing social issues such as famine, floods, political affairs involving kings and landlords, and even matters related to weather and nature. We must not forget that time, they were the only medium that communicated different information and news to the masses in an artistic form.
At a time when formal education had not reached every corner of society and most people were illiterate, the Patuas served as the sole medium of communication—sharing news, stories, and information through their painted scrolls, songs, and performances. In this way, they gave awareness to our ancestors on a wide range of subjects from generation to generation through their creativity.
They were the original storytellers, educators, and social commentators. Moreover, they were true social reformers and educators—working without recognition, credit, or institutional support.
In this tech-savvy modern age, they are really facing an existential crisis. They are trying their best to carry on the art form in spite of their financial crisis. Many of them, particularly new generations, transformed their art into new formats such as dress materials, i.e., Sarees, Dupatta, Salwar Suits, Kurtis, Punjabis, T-Shirts, etc, clay pots, and different useful utensils such as cups, plates, lamp sets, boxes, and many other showpieces.
OTHER ATTRACTIONS OF NAYAGRAM
Another attraction of this place is a private museum. Mr Basudev Chitrakar and his family operate a private museum that showcases a diverse collection of ancient Patachitra scrolls, coins, manuscripts, paintings, books, and crafts from various regions.
In addition to the museum, the village has a Folk Art Centre. This community also arranges an annual festival every November, offering a more enjoyable opportunity to witness their various innovative cultural activities.
CONCLUSIONS
It’s truly a wonderful feeling to spend a few hours in this small village where all the inhabitant devote their entire life to the art and culture wholeheartedly. They earn their livelihood through their artistic work in the lap of a green field under a blue sky, overcoming the various obstacles related to monetary issues.
We, the visitors, come to observe and admire their work and take photos, share their stories, and celebrate their talent, but often overlook the reality of how they will survive in this artificial intelligence-dominated era.
Reference
- Wikipedia
- https://www.artsindia.com/
- Chitralekha International Magazine on Art and Design
- https://paschimmedinipur.gov.in