Noted Pattachitra artist Sahajan Chitrakar talks about the dying art form, its soul and more
Intricate in design, elaborate in subject, detailed with emotions and brimming with bold, natural colours, Pattachitra, a traditional scroll painting form from Odisha with a history dating back to 2,500 years, defines the difference between a patua and other painters. “Music,” explains Sahajan Chitrakar, the noted Pattachitra artist, “is the soul of Pattachitra. If you don’t have a song to accompany your art, you are not a patua. A song completes the entire narrative of a story. We don’t just paint but sing as well when we unfurl the scroll to our audiences. These are called pattar gaan,” he further explains in thick Bengali-accented Hindi as he opens a scroll for us with a song that narrates the story of Devi Mansa and her tales at the ongoing exhibition titled ‘Devion ki Kahani’, at IIC.
His soulful songs accompanied by equally captivating artworks range from traditional mythological tales, tribal ritual stories based on modern Indian history to contemporary issues like family planning, deforestation and world peace. He starts from the fundamentals. “Patta means cloth and chitra means picture. Pattachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-based scroll painting. Most of these paintings depict stories of Hindu deities. These paintings were originally substitutes for worship on days when the temple doors were shut. I have been making scrolls and paintings since I was 10. It is a profession that we are carrying on for generations.”
Seated amidst his canvases, with a warm smile the artist from West Bengal explains that his work reflects the country’s hidden and ancient treasures, profuse diversity and social messages through an effective yet humble medium. “Art is limitless. Our canvas is heuristic in nature as we encourage people to learn, discover, understand and solve problems on his or her own, as by testing his knowledge and intellect,” says the chitrakar. “These are not just paintings,” he informs, rolling out the longest painting among the lot that he brought to the city. “This one is 40-feet long and narrates the complete story of Mansa Devi,” he says. Apart from this, his collection also includes stories of Mahabharata, popular fairy tales, folk tales, and a number of social issues too.
“All the colours we use are natural, mostly vegetable and flower extracts,” he explains. There are 10 basic colours, of which the most fascinating process is how they extract black and white. “We collect the soot from lamps at home. That is mixed with water and laid out under the sun to dry. That’s how we get the colour black. And white is obtained from digging deeper layers of the earth. We dig to a certain level where the mud is white. This soil is again mixed with water and dried under the sun,” he elaborates. Yellow comes from dried haldi, green from broad beans, blue from blue pea flower (aparajita), red from betel leaves and pink from the green leafy vegetable called puisaag. “Also, if these colours are put directly on the paper, they peel off. We mix them with sticky juice that comes out of bel fruit (wood apple). This helps retain the colours on the canvas. The paper is then attached to cloth pieces. But before that, the paper is treated with juice obtained from neem leaves that wards off all insects and bugs,” he informs. His collection includes small paintings as well as several feet long scrolls that are for sale starting from Rs 600 and go up to Rs 35 lakh.
Sahajan wants not just pattachitra but all other tribal and folk art forms such as Worli, Madhubani, etc. to be preserved and celebrated. His dream is to see his paintings find space in every home.
