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Clockwise from the left ‘Gujarat Earthquake’ by Gurupada Chitrakar (2001) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, ‘Santhal Clan Occupations’ by Jitu Chitrakar (1920) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, ‘Jagannath Pata’ by Biren Chitrakar (1971) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection. Explore Bridge Bharat Collection.
In Bengal, the word ‘Pata’ signifies pictures painted on cloth or paper. From this word ‘pata’ has emerged the word ‘patua’ (painter). The ‘patuas’ or ‘chitrakars’ hold a priest-like status in the Santhal community- they play an important role at the time of birth, death, and marriage- and are given offerings to pray for the occasion. The ‘patuas’ are also accomplished singers, they go from village to village to display the scrolls along with narration of folktales.
Clockwise from the left ‘Mahisashuramardini’ by Uttam Chitrakar (2009) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, ‘Ganesh Janini’ by Anwar Chitrakar from Bridge Bharat Collection, ‘Lakshmi and Saraswati’ by Ranjit Chitrakar (1995-98) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection. Explore Bridge Bharat Collection.
Pata paintings, or the Patachitra from West Bengal, are narrative scrolls painted in vertical panels describing traditional tales from the epics, Puranas, Ramayana, and Mahabharata or local tradition, such as the culture of snake goddess, Manasa or the great Bengali Vaishnava saint, Shri Chaitanya, and secular themes. The characters are visualized in natural surroundings, a palace, or a settlement. The secular patachitra makes a record of important social, political, and natural events. Thus patua carries new information and opinions to the people.
Clockwise from the left Anwar Chitrakar, Swarna Chitrakar, and Uttam Chitrakar. Explore More.
The Patua, also known as Chitrakars (picture makers; hence, their adoption of the term as a surname and caste title), are an indigenous group of Bengalis specializing in the production of painted narrative scrolls (‘Pata’) and the performance of songs to accompany their unscrolling. According to Gurupada Chitrakar the word ‘Pata’ comes from the Bengali infinitive ‘Patano’, which means to persuade. The legend says that the first Patuas had to use rhetoric to lure in, seduce, and persuade their audiences to listen to their songs and pay them for their services. It is known that the Patuas have been plying their art form since at least the thirteenth century. Similar to the mythical Baul singers of greater Bengal, who are perceived to be neither Hindu nor Muslim.
Clockwise from the left ‘Baiji Ghar Mein Jamindar’, ‘Babu and Bibi Playing Chess’, and ‘Jamindar Babu and Bibi Playing with Parrot’ by Anwar Chitrakar, all from the Bridge Bharat Collection. Explore Collection.
The migration of these Patua artists to Kalighat near Calcutta led to a new renaissance within the scroll art form. The Patuas traditionally painted long narrative stories, often over 20 feet in length. Influenced by the different art forms around them and with a need to work quickly, the patuas abandoned their linear, narrative style in favor of single pictures involving one or two figures. The backgrounds were left plain, all non-essential details removed, and basic combinations of colors were used. This created the key characteristics of the Kalighat genre.
Clockwise from the left ‘Yama the God of Death’ By Sahajahan Chitrakar (2005) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, ‘Goddess Durga with Family’ by Anwar Chitrakar from Bridge Bharat Collection, ‘Ramayan Scene’ by Uttam Chitrakar Courtesy of the Artist. Explore Bridge Bharat Collection.
There are three types of formats in Patachitra- the vertical scroll (‘dighal pat’), the horizontal scroll (‘jorona pat’), and a single quadrangular sheet (‘chauka pat’). ‘Patas’ were originally on long stretches of coarsely woven cotton cloth. A fine coating of clay mixed with cow dung was applied on the scroll to smoothen the surface and seal the pores of the cloth. When dry the surface was rubbed to make it even and thus ready to receive the paints. Later on, paper was used. The ‘jorano pats’) are sometimes painted on paper of the cheapest variety, even old newspapers- on an average 12-15 feet in length and 1-2 feet wide.
Patua artists prepare colors in advance.
The limited palette of earth colors of the ‘patas’ are pure and bright. The five primary colors used included ‘Sveta’ (white), ‘Pita’ (yellow), ‘Krishna’ (lamp-black), ‘Haritala’ (green-brown), and ‘Rakta’ (red). For embellishment, gold leaf or powdered gold leaf and silver leaf are used. The blue to be used for Krishna’s face is vivid indigo. For fixing the paints they are often mixed with tamarind pulp or barley paste.
Clockwise from the left ‘An Artist at Work’ By Anwar Chitrakar (2009) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, ‘Revisiting Kaliyug’ by Kalam Patua (2004) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, ‘Work In Progress’ by Anwar Chitrakar (2011) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection. Explore Bridge Bharat Collection.
What is most striking about the Patuas is their incredible resilience, and their ability to adapt their art form to modern exigencies by addressing issues of current interest. Many urban Patuas sing no more, but they continue to work with their hands as wall painters, image-makers, and so on. These hereditary artists now showcase in and around the contemporary art scene within India and abroad. Works of artists like Anwar Chitrakar, Uttam Chitrakar, and Kalam Patua are seen within the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum and the halls of MET Museum. As recent as March of 2024 art world saw traditional Bengal Pat (scroll) paintings during the recent auction held at Christie's of South Asian Modern and Contemporary art from the collection of Umesh and Sunanda Gaur. More and more art connoisseurs and collectors have begun patronizing the Patua artists, resulting in various contemporary interventions within their art form.
Clockwise from the left ‘Ganesh Janini’ By Uttam Chitrakar from the Bridge Bharat Collection, ‘Speaking Into the Mirror’ by Kalam Patua (2009) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection, ‘Oh Kolkata’ by Kalam Patua (2008) Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum Collection. Explore Bridge Bharat Collection.
Uttam Chitrakar in his works references old and new traditions in his Kalighat paintings, taking inspiration from religious subject matter. The figure of Durga shown above recalls those of Indian artist Jamini Roy. The facial features are highly stylized and symmetrical, while the lion and water buffalo shapes are created from minimal bold lines. Whereas artist Kalam Patua uses vibrant blues in his work ‘Speaking Into The Mirror’ where the lady seductively imagining her lover reminds us of Matisse’s ‘Blue Nudes’. Modern Kalighat patuas use the same techniques of painting as the 19th-century patuas did. Master artist Anwar Chitrakar shows us this process he uses to create a Kalighat painting in his ‘Work In Progress’ painting shown above.
Greater Bengal has been the home of a number of interrelated painting and drawing forms ranging from ritual floor designs known as ‘alpona’ to the modern “traditionalism” of the internationally known and highly acclaimed painter Jamini Roy, whose work reflects the ‘pata’ genre that is at the center, and in between these two extremes of ritual based rural forms and urban-based interpretations and developments of rural forms lie a number of other hybrid-painting media, including the urban Kalighat style developed in Kolkata in the nineteenth century. One might see themes cropping up in the repertoires of the Patuas, some still tell the old stories that have been popular for centuries. The images in this article speak both of the old and the new, with a broad cross-section of themes and motifs employed- religious, social, and historical- by the Patuas of Bengal.