Transformation of Art- Patachitra

Recently visited a craft exhibition. There I could find these book marks. I thought, these are good gifts to book lovers. So bought some.

Bookmarks with Patachitra art

These have small patachitra designs on it. Patachitra , normally contains mythological characters and narration of mythological stories, like Ramayana and Mahabharat. Here you can see , one of the bookmarks has Worli designs on it.With any  art form it happens, with time and market demand, the traditional art slowly changes and becomes modernized. I have shared how the art of Kerala Mural changed with time.

Artists draw Patachitras on palm leaves and tussar silk cloth. On palm leaves patachitra is called Talapatachitra. Talapatachitras are done in Puri and Bubhaneshwara. On palm leaves the designs are engraved using the tool shown below:

Engraving tool for Talapatachitra

And some artists draw it on tussar silk using brushes. Earlier these brushes were made using hairs of animals. Now they use synthetic brushes too.

Transformation in Designs:

Patachitras were drawn for religious purposes in ancient time. These included Puri Jagannath and mythological stories in Ramayana and Mahabharata. Nowadays people use it for home decoration. So artists also have changes the designs to suit the modern age and customer requirements. here is a Patachitra with peacock design :

Patachitra with peacock design

Change in medium:

The media on which these were drawn also changing. Earlier the media were only cloth , palm leaves and wood. Now it is drawn on several media, including glass, bottles, sarees etc. I could see in the exhibition, the artist had used coconut shell and areca nut as media:

Patachitra designs on Coconut shell

Patachitra on Areca nut

Though Patachitra has undergone a few changes, the intricacy and minute details of the stories are kept intact. The art has transformed, to meet he market demand and change in usage. As I have written, earlier these were used for religious purpose and artists had enough income because religious rituals were performed by many. But now decrease in the number of religious practitioner, the demand for the art also was diminishing. The artists started making home decor items. Many people buy , Patachitra to decorate houses. And they are satisfies too with this art form, decorating their homes. I could find many buying the small and big Patachitra panels. Here is one such customer :

Happy customer with Patachitra Panel

Also read :

Patachitra-pride of orissa

Some unique patachitra paintings

Patachitra paintings that narrate stories

Love,Laugh and Live the life to the fullest,

-Ranjana