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Crafts / Pattachitra

Pattachitra

State
Odisha
Material
Cloth · Natural colour
Rarity
Popular

Stories from the Puri temple, painted on cloth

About

Crisp-lined cloth paintings of Jagannath, Krishna and epic scenes in natural colours, made by the chitrakars of Odisha.

Pattachitra, or patta painting, is the traditional cloth painting of Odisha. The word patta means cloth and chitra means picture. Painters, called chitrakars, work on small strips of cotton cloth that are stiffened with a chalk and gum coating, and fill them with figures drawn in sharp, bold lines inside a decorative border. The best-known centre is Raghurajpur village near Puri, and the art is also practised in places such as Paralakhemundi, Chikiti and Sonepur.

It is a family craft. In a chitrakar household the whole family works as one studio: women prepare the gum and the cloth and fill in colour, and the master painter, who is often a man in the family, draws the first lines and the final details.

The subjects are mostly religious and mythological. Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, Krishna and the gopis, the Ramayana and Mahabharata, and the ten incarnations of Vishnu are favourites. Besides cloth, the same painters decorate palm leaves, wooden boards and papier-mâché objects, and make playing cards (ganjapa).

How it’s made

The work starts with the cloth. A piece of cotton is coated with a paste of chalk powder and a gum made from tamarind or other seeds, then dried and rubbed smooth with stones. The result is a stiff, slightly leathery surface that takes colour well. This stage is mostly done by the women of the household.

The painter then draws directly with a brush, without a pencil sketch, first in light red or yellow. The brushes are handmade from the hair of domestic animals tied to a bamboo stick. Colours are made by the painters themselves from natural materials: white from powdered and boiled conch shell, red from the mineral hingula, yellow from the stone haritala, black from lamp soot, and blue from an indigo-type colour. The palette is deliberately limited to bright, flat colours, with Krishna usually painted blue.

After the colours are filled in, the final outlines are drawn and a decorative border is painted. To protect the picture and give it a gloss, a coat of lacquer is applied to the surface while the painting is held over a fire so that the back of the cloth is warmed. There is little perspective or landscape: figures are crowded close together, set against a background of flowers and foliage, usually in red.

Key features

  • Painted on cloth stiffened with chalk and gum
  • Bold, clean, angular outlines drawn without a pencil sketch
  • Limited bright palette: red, yellow, black, white and indigo-type blue
  • Colours made from conch shell, minerals, soot and plants
  • Always framed by a decorative border of flowers or patterns
  • Subjects drawn from Jagannath, Krishna and the epics
  • Family workshop: the household shares the preparation and painting
  • Often finished with a glossy lacquer coat

History

The painters' own tradition ties the art to the temple of Jagannath at Puri. One account holds that patta paintings began as substitutes for the deities on the days after their ritual bath, when the wooden images are kept away from the public. Painted images of the deities have long been sold to pilgrims as souvenirs, and the colour scheme of the Puri deities is close to the palette of patta painting. The exact age of the tradition is not documented; the surviving record is thin because cloth and paint do not last like stone sculpture.

Patta painters have traditionally lived and worked in the villages around Puri, and many of their families have done this work for generations. The wider Odia painting tradition is also seen in wall painting, palm-leaf engraving (tala patra chitra) and the art of the ganjapa cards.

Today the craft survives partly because pilgrims and collectors still buy it. Painters now also make paintings for homes, wall hangings, and are teaching the craft in schools and workshops. A related but different tradition of cloth and scroll painting, also called patachitra, exists in West Bengal and is covered separately.

Facts

  • 5 colours A five-colour palette. Traditional pattachitra is described as using five natural colours: hingula (red), haritala (yellow), kala (black), sankha (white) and geru (brick orange). Blue from indigo-type colours is also used.
  • Conch white White from conch shell. The white colour is made by powdering, boiling and filtering conch shells, a slow process that gives the colour its brilliance.
  • No sketch Drawn straight with the brush. Painters do not use pencil or charcoal. They draw the first outline directly with the brush in a light colour and then fill in the rest.
  • Palm leaf Also done on palm leaf. The same artists make tala pattachitra, in which scenes are etched into sewn palm leaf panels and then inked, and the leaf folds like a fan.

Market

Pilgrim souvenirs and collector pieces

Pattachitra is sold as framed or rolled paintings, wall hangings, painted palm-leaf fans and playing cards, and on items such as lamp shades and boxes. Small pieces near the Jagannath temple and in Raghurajpur are bought by pilgrims and tourists, while larger and finer works go to collectors. Buying directly from painters or craft cooperatives passes more of the price to the family.

Sustainability

Hand-made colours, hand-made brushes

Traditional colours come from shell, stone, soot and plants, and brushes are made of animal hair on bamboo, so little industrial waste is created. Shell-white making is slow and hard on the hands, which is one reason some painters have turned to bought colours; ask for natural-colour work if it matters to you.

Products

  • Cloth paintings: Painted on prepared cotton, framed or rolled
  • Palm-leaf paintings and fans: Etched and inked tala pattachitra panels
  • Ganjapa playing cards: Round painted cards in sets, an older Odia tradition
  • Painted boxes and trays: Papier-mâché or wooden items with patta motifs
  • Wall hangings and sarees: Modern uses of the patta style

Words to know

  • Patta: Cloth; here the prepared cotton canvas used for painting.
  • Chitrakar: The painter; the community that makes pattachitra.
  • Hingula: A mineral red colour.
  • Haritala: A stone-based yellow colour, traditionally from orpiment.
  • Sankha: Conch shell; the source of the white colour.
  • Tala patra: Palm leaf; tala pattachitra is the palm-leaf version.
  • Ganjapa: Painted round playing cards of Odisha.

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