Pattachitra

Pattachitra - from the Sanskrit paṭṭa, 'cloth', and chitra, 'picture' - is the traditional cloth-based scroll painting of Odisha, West Bengal and parts of Bangladesh, and one of the oldest living painting traditions of India. Its densely detailed panels recount mythological narratives and folktales: Krishna and Radha, the Jagannath triad, episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Gita Govinda. In Odisha the paintings were made for ritual use and as souvenirs for pilgrims to Puri, with the best work done in and around the temple towns, especially the village of Raghurajpur; in Bengal, painted scrolls accompanied Patua songs, with the image serving the performance. Ancestors such as the Charanachitras and Yamapatas textile scrolls are described in Hindu, Jain and Buddhist texts, and the craft is still practiced by hereditary Chitrakar painters.

Defining characteristics

• Painted on cloth (patta) prepared with a chalk-and-glue ground, or incised on palm leaf
• All-natural pigments; bold reds, yellows, whites and blacks predominate
• Bold outlines and large, expressive eyes; deities rendered as flat frontal icons like Jagannath
• Dense, intricate ornament - figures and motifs fill the surface edge to edge
• Narrative panels and scrolls: episodes framed in borders for sequential storytelling
• Fine decorative detail in jewelry, drapery and background motifs

Key figures

• Jayadeva (c. 1170-c. 1245) — Poet of the Gita Govinda, the Krishna narrative Pattachitra painters illustrate most
• Jamini Roy (1887-1972) — Bengali modernist who adapted the Patachitra folk idiom into 20th-century painting

Example works

• Gopis on the Banks of the Yamuna — Unknown Odisha painter (c. 1550)
• Two Lovers, folio from a Ragamala album — Unknown Odisha painter

Sources

• Pattachitra - Wikipedia encyclopedia
• Raghurajpur - Wikipedia encyclopedia

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