About Me

My photo
With more than 50 years of travelling about in India, one can share a good deal of information and experience about out-of-the-way places and roads less travelled. That can make visits all the more exciting and enjoyable.

Thursday 17 September 2020

"Patachitra" of Odisha

 "Patachitra" is a folk art form of Odisha, practised mainly in villages near and around the temple city of Puri. A prime centre is the village of Raghurajpur that is about 20 kms from Puri on the way to Bhubaneswar and it can be easily approached from Puri by bus or vehicle or even train. 

The word "patachitra" is derived from "pata" or plate or canvas, and was traditionally painted with oil-based colours on thin boards of wood, or on palmyra leaves, or on cloth. Patachitra as a folk art form seems to have started about a couple of centuries ago and has for motifs mainly themes based on Lord Jagannatha and Lord Krishna. Earlier it was done with a stylus on palm leaf but progressive it has come to be done with oil paints, mainly with  primary colours  of yellow, blue, red, green, with outlines finely etched with black, on cloth or wood. 


 


This picture is of a patachitra item collected from Raghurajpur, sometime in 1990-91. It was done the famous patachitra artist, Jagannath Panigrahi, a national award-winner at that time.