Patashilpa
West Bengal
This is a painting drawn on a piece of cloth known as ‘Pati’ or ‘Patta’.
The brush used is made of a bamboo stick and goat hair. Colours are
obtained from natural herbs & plants.
The Patuas of West Bengal are traditional artists who specialise in
painting narrative scrolls. They also sing the songs to accompany their
unrolling. In the olden days, the scroll painters would wander from
village to village, seeking patronage by singing their own compositions
while unraveling painted scrolls on sacred and secular themes.
In West Bengal there are five folk forms of Patashilpa:
a. Chau dance of Purulia
b. Jhumur Song and dance of Bankura and Purulia
c. Gambhira and Domni of Malda
d. Baul and Fakira of Nadia
e. Patachitra of Purba and Paschim Medinipur
Today, scrolls by the young painters venture even further into current
affairs, history and other subjects outside their tradition.
Patashilpa is one of the ancient folk art traditions of Bengal and dates
back to over five thousand years. Their style is reminiscent of Mohenjo
Daro and Harappa as also the Ajanta Caves.
These scrolls are painted with vegetable dyes fixed with a vegetable
gum on paper. The panels are sewn together and fabric from old
saris is glued to the back to strengthen the scroll. Individual paintings
may resemble single panels from same scroll stories, or independent
images of wild animals and scenes from the artist’s imagination.
Anwar Chitrakar, born in 1980, is a traditional Patua painter from Paschimbanga and has been
practising the art for 20 years. He has participated in many group exhibitions in India and abroad,
including the Berlin Festival in April 2012 and the Namaste India Festival in Japan in October 2012. He
won the State Award (West Bengal) in 2002 and the National Award in 2006. His painting of Goddess
Durga is a part of the fabulous Art collection by leading Artists at the Mumbai International Airport.
