Attended a public lecture by Prof. Jyotindra Jain on the subject – “Indian Picture Showmen : Tradition and Transformation” at IGNCA on 29-10-2010
Bengal Patua Paintings (Patachitra)
Interestingly from 19th century, the folk and tribal started showing tremendous response to contemporary environment
The Patuas (chitrakars) started responding to new changes happening in the environment
It is really fascinating to see that the since the Patuas are part Muslim and part Hindu, the women of this community put sindoor and also wear white and red bangles. A lot of these Muslim Patuas were asked by the Hindu communities for converting into Hinduism. But because of many religious and political reasons many went back to the previous. The most important part is no one knows the Hindu Mythology better than these Muslims.
In the 19th century, paintings were made on Ramayana, Durga Maa, Chandi Mangal and further if one goes we can see a new social element entering in the 19th century itself. One of the painting shows husband pampering his wife and mother left in pain.
The scroll paintings also show the Cinema coming in Bengal in the 20th century.
It shows young couples, kids, families and old people going to Cinema. The painting reflects people deviating from tradition and adapting contemporary.
These paintings shows Patuas bitterness about Cinema, the influence of cinema and their importance decreasing as storytellers
There are paintings which shows how poverty came to Bengal, expressions from the surroundings, bad influence of cinema and many more
Interestingly scrolls became the medium of expression of development of Bengal and all Patuas came with their own interpretations
It is very captivating to see how the Patuas adopt the contemporary scrolls in pattern of religious scrolls!
Now observe how they have used the Durga scroll pattern in the modern Indira Gandhi scroll ….
In the tradition religious scroll painting, the 1st big panel(sections of the paintings) has Durga Maa’s painted which shows the scrolls starts with worshiping her power followed by other panels depicting the rest of the story which include other characters
In the contemporary Indira Gandhi scroll, the 1st big panel has a big newspaper cutout of Indira Gandhi which shows her power as a leader of the country followed by other panels depicting the rest of the story which include other characters
The scroll also shows Rajiv Gandhi. Interestingly to show Rajiv Gandhi as a big power man they have used the symbols of Fan and clock in that particular panel. Note how the Patuas symbolize a big power guy of 1986 with a fan and a clock!
In the 9/11 incident scrolls Osama bin laden is interpreted as devil! The Patuas vivid imagination is very fascinating to see in all scroll paintings. The Hell and Heaven concepts from the religious stories are very well adopted in the contemporary stories.
The important aesthetic elements from the religious traditional scrolls are very well used in new context.
A very popular example of adaptation showing the changing life of Urban Calcutta is the Kalighat paintings
All these scroll paintings tells us that every image has a role, a power to express …
The tsunami scrolls is one such example. These scrolls give one a real overview of how tragically it affected the life of the natives and how the media people used this opportunity to increase their TRPs. The photographers and the press people are shown busy capturing for their coverage instead of helping people who have actually lost every bit of their living.
Scrolls on Santhal tribes
-The Chakshuban scrolls are one of important scrolls
Santhal tribe believes if someone dies or some mishap happen it means that their spirits are in trouble. The Patuas then make the painting of the dead person, be it an old man, women etc without the eyeball and he ask the related people if they donate something he will put eye balls on those painting and then the died person will be free to go to heaven. Then people donate and give food to the Patua to do so.
-Scrolls depicting their Myth of Creation
-There are scrolls in which Lord Shiva is shown with policemen wearing uniform and guns. The Patuas have compared the power of Lord Shiva with a Politician and how he carries security guards with himself.
The image of Policeman is always shown very powerful in their paintings because they are the people who decide the life of these tribal people
Interesting question asked by a listener to the speaker:
“ Do you think giving a contemporary touch to the paintings by the Patuas is actually killing the traditional Patachitra?”
Jyotindra Jain replied that in his opinion anything that remains constant and rigid becomes dead with time. It becomes mere objects to be kept in Museums.
He ends the session saying a very important point “ Do one want our traditions to go dead or grow with time ?”
