The first place on my wish list during my trip to Odisha was to meet the Pattachitra artisans of Raghurajpur. It is always a pleasure for me to visit the traditional arts and crafts village.
They still hold the same importance for me as they were in the past, that is, they are the focal point of excellence for me. Every person of Raghurajpur village is engaged in the same field of work.
That is why it appears that there must be a healthy competition between them which will motivate them to make the quality of their work excellent.
Determining the incoming sources of raw materials and reaching the finished artworks to the customers will be relatively the simplest task of this entire supply chain.
It was an enlightening experience for me as a traveler to not only buy artifacts but also to understand the amount of time, effort, skill, and knowledge invested in making these traditional artifacts.
Earlier, I had visited the crafts villages of Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Bengal. Therefore, during my visit to Odisha, I decided to spend some time with the artisans of Raghurajpur Shilpgram to get to know the craftsmanship closely.
Raghurajpur Village
It is a small village situated about 14 km from Puri. There are 12 temples in the center of the village with about 150 houses in a row on either side.
Even though the temples are small, I felt pleasantly happy seeing the number of temples in proportion to the houses. In a way, this temple is the Meru Dand of this village, around which the physical body of the village is functioning.
Visiting Raghurajpur village is like visiting a Muktangan museum. The houses of the villagers are so wonderfully decorated with beautiful colorful paintings that you are bound to stop for a few moments in front of each house and look at them.
The residents of Raghurajpur have ensured that they display artworks of different styles on their reefs. The artisans create these artifacts by sitting on the balcony of the buildings. A short walk to this village will take you to a different world of Odisha’s art and craft tradition.
traditional painting on palm leaf
Raghurajpur village is most famous in the painting of Pattachitra. Pattachitra is an ancient art of painting on palm leaves.
But presently the artists here are displaying their artworks on mediums other than palm leaves, such as cotton and silk cloth, coconut skull, betel nut, glass bottle, stone, wood, etc. They also make masks and toys.
The major communities in the village are Sahu, Swain, Maharana, Goldsmith, etc. who are engaged in these activities. There is only one person Brahmin in the whole village.
When we visited this village, the trunks of all the trees here were exposed. There were neither branches nor leaves on the trees.
We were told that when the cyclone had wreaked havoc here, the trees had been destroyed in this way. Almost lost in the memory of the past,
all the villagers were telling me that if I had visited here before the cyclone, I too would have been able to see the village full of many flowers and fruit trees.
Pattachitra painting style of Raghurajpur
The Pattachitra painting style of Raghurajpur is an integral part of the culture of Puri. When the throne of the Trimurti of the Jagannath Temple in Puri remains vacant,
his Pattachitras painted in gold are worshipped. This happens at the time when Shri Jagannath goes to the bathing mandap for the bath of 108 pots and becomes ill. Generations of artists of this village have been painting this ritualistic painting style.
Pattachitra painting is traditionally done on narrow strips of palm leaves joined together. Generally, this painting is done in black color, in which first the surface of palm leaves is carved and black color is filled in it.
New versions of Pattachitra are being done on cloth. This version of Pattachitra is more popular with tourists because of the bright colors used in them and their subjects are also different.
Contemporary versions are being done on silk fabrics which give a softness to the painting. You can also wear these artifacts and can also embellish the walls of your residence.
Meeting with Pattachitra Artisans
We met Alok Nath Sahuji in his single-room workshop. They’re some of his young apprentices were busy painting. To show the variety of Pattachitra’s art style and their themes and themes, he presented his best works to us.
He told us how to prepare a picture board for painting. Similar to old worn-out saris, several layers of used soft fabrics are held together by a gum pulp made from tamarind seeds.
Thereafter they are dried in the sun. When dry, they become almost like a thick sheet of paper and become stronger than that.
The powder of chalk is used to remove the color spots on the cloth and to whiten its surface. After this, the surface of the cloth is rubbed and polished with a piece of marble. Whichever of the two surfaces will be more shiny and smooth, painting is done on the other surface by keeping it facing down.
