An Art Trail in Odisha
Wall murals on the façade of 100 homes in the relatively unknown village
of Raghurajpur in Odisha welcome Tripoto blogger Dipanwita Chakraborty.CLOCKWISE: ANILDAVE/DINODIA PHOTO/GETTYIMAGES; ALIS PHOTO/ALAMY; SUBHENDU SARKAR/GETTYIMAGESHidden Gem
A
rt is the heart of Raghurajpur, Odisha. As I walk
through the village, I notice the colourful houses
with paintings depicting scenes from Mahabharata
and Ramayana. This is a painstaking effort taken up
by the 100 artisan families that live in the village to keep
the 12th-century art form, Pattachitra, alive.
The term is derived from Patta that means cloth
or canvas and Chitra that denotes painting. For this,
artists use a special canvas made
by sticking layers of cotton
or tussar silk cloth together
with natural adhesive such
as tamarind. The colours areprepared using natural substances such as conch and
soot from burning lamps.
Artists in the village willingly invite visitors
to their houses and explain the nuances of the
art. During my walk through the many lanes of
Raghurajpur, I met Bhaskar Mahapatra, the Lalit
Kala Akademi winner from the village. Like every
other house here, his abode too was painted with
characteristic murals on the outer walls. Inside,
Mahapatra introduced me to his tool kit—brushes
specially prepared from mouse hair and iron pins
used to create carvings on palm leaves.
It can take anywhere between five days to six
months to create the artwork, depending
on the detailing—elaborate scenes,
from Krishna’s Ras Leela the Goddess
Durga killing Mahishasur, will leave you
in awe. Bhaskar confided that it once took
him three years to complete a project.
While these paintings were exclusively
done by men earlier, with women only
preparing the canvas; today, more and
more women have taken up the brush
and emerged as artists. ▪HOW TO REACH
Raghurajpur is
a 30-minute drive
from Puri (11kms).
You can also reach
the village from
Bhubaneswar
(60kms).WHAT TO DO
Meet artists and buy
their signature works
at nominal prices.
You can also visit Puri
beach (13kms).WHERE TO STAY
Mayfair Waves
(mayfairhotels.com)
and The Chariot
Resort & Spa
(thechariotpuri.com).GUIDE
This article was first published on Tripoto.com.
Murals from Hindu
mythologies are a
characteristic feature of
houses in Raghurajpur.A wooden boat
harboured on the
shores of Puri
beach. Left: An
artist showcases
his work.