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PAINTINGS - Patachitra

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25 Jul 2021
Tussar Paintings are commonly known as Patta Chitra and is quite a popular art in West Bengal and Odisha. It's a traditional art done on a piece of cloth or silk sarees usually with Lord Krishna stories. Patta means a piece of cloth and Chitra means painting. Various types of cloth materials are used for the patta paintings and the most popular cloths are gauze like cloth, tussar silk and so on. Tussar paintings are theme based art with lot of motifs and bright colors which are made from natural dyes. You can see a distinguished border and intricate designs like those in the temple deities. Patta paintings are known to exist from 5 B.C, where great tales were drawn on a piece of cloth, resembling a scroll, slowly the art was transformed to tussar silk sarees. Odisha is the land of Lord Jaganath, so most patta paintings are stories based on Lord Jaganath and other temple dieties. The artists are known as chitrakars and most of them hail from the village Raghurajpur, which is quite popular for it's craftsmanship. Tussar Silk is usually worn by women for festive occasions, so through these tussar paintings, the artists creativity gathers more recognition..
- 10 Beautiful Tussar Paintings - History of traditional Odisha silk saree artworks, webneel.com


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Jul 2021
Pattachitra is the art of traditional, cloth-based scroll painting that originated in state of Odisha (formerly known as Orissa). The name comes from the word ‘Patta,’ the Sanskrit word for ‘cloth’ and ‘Chitra,’ ‘picture.’
Painting as an art form appeared in Odisha after sculpture; in fact, several centuries after the construction of the great temples of Bhubaneswar, Puri and Konark. Pattachitra aficionados will tell you that all the paintings resemble the old murals of Odisha that are found in and around the religious centres of Puri, Konark, and Bhubaneswar. These murals go back to as early as 5th century BC. The most detailed and skilled Pattachitra work is found in and around Puri, especially in the village of Raghurajpur. This old tradition of Oriya painting still survives in the places like Puri, Raghurajpur, Paralakhemundi, Chikiti and Sonepur. Even today in Odisha, these two crafts are combined in one. The artists are usually Mohapatras or Maharanas.
Source: Avinash Subramaniam, engrave.in, 17 July 2016