Indian Folk Paintings

Manjusha Art

It is believed that Manjusha art originated in Anga Mahajanapada, it is also known as  Angika Art. It was used in Bihula-Vishahri Pooja, a festival dedicated to Snake God, Celebrated in Bhagalpur(Bihar) in the month of August. It is one of the very old and historically very important Art. It is often referred to as Snake Paintings by foreigners as swirling snakes in the art depict the central character Bihula’s tale of love and sacrifice

Varayarangu

Varayarangu is unique art genre from Kerala. The performing level possibilities of Fine Art as a Stage Art are explored through this new and innovative type of Infotainment. In simple language it can be referred to as a Cartoon Stage Show with a unification of poetry, anecdotes and socio-political satire and high speed drawing. This art genre had been initiated and developed by performing Cartoonist S. Jithesh. The mode of presentation of this ‘Cartoon Stage Show’ is very captivating and enchanting by means of interlacing interesting anecdotes, light talk and social satire.

Phad Paintings

It is a popular style of folk painting done on a long piece of cloth, known as phad. It is practiced in Rajasthan. Phad refers to a long piece of cloth, which contain the narratives of the folk deities of Rajasthan, such as Pabuji and Devnarayan. These Phads are carried by the Bhopas (priest-singers) so that they serve as the mobile temples of the folk deities. The phads of Pabuji are normally about 15 feet in length, while the phads of Devnarayan are normally about 30 feet long. Traditionally the phads are painted with vegetable colors.

A series of these paintings represent a folk epic narrative and every available inch of the canvas is crowded with figures. While the figures are harmoniously distributed all over the area, the scale of figure depends on the social status of the character they represent and the roles they play in the story. These paintings thus accommodate numerous episodes of the complex stories.

Kalighat Painting

This Indian Style of painting originated in the vicinity of Kalighat Kali Temple, Kalighat (Kolkata, India) in 19^th century. Kalighat temple was considered the main centre around which the traditional artists called ‘the pataus’ or ‘painters of cloth’ concentrated. Later academic training institutions were set up in Bengal imparting European style of art for the Indian artists by British patrons. This induced the traditional artists to move from rural areas to the city. They started learning from the newer techniques. They also created innovative and new art forms. This eventually led to the birth of Kalighat painting.

Special Features

• Kalighat School was a unique and delightful Blend of the Oriental and the Occidental styles of painting. Due to this exceptional combination, it gained steady acknowledgment.
• The artists played an important role in the Independence movement through the depiction of secular themes and personalities in their paintings.
• Paintings apart from depicting religious themes also portrayed different professions and costumes which were popular among the tourists. Sometimes, even contemporary events like crime were the subject of many paintings.
• Images of goddess were popular among Kalighat artists. Kali was the favourite goddess among all deities. The artists also portrayed themes like Sita-Rama, Radha-Krishna and the exploits of Hanuman. Another theme depicted, dear to the Bengali ethos, was that of Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and his disciples.
• The simple paintings and drawings of the Kalighat artists could easily be reproduced by lithography. Such prints were then hand coloured. This trend continued up to the early part of the twentieth century and these paintings ended up in museums and private collections. This was considered as one of their significant accomplishment. They captured the essence of daily life which influenced many modern artists.

Warli Painting

Warli Paintings is believed to be dating back to 2500 or 3000 BC. These mural paintings bear a resemblance to those created in the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka. Scenes portraying hunting, fishing and farming, festivals and dances, trees and animals are used to surround the central theme of the painting. To represent animal and human bodies, two triangles are joined at the tip in which the upper one signifies the trunk while the lower one signifies the pelvis. The precarious equilibrium signifies balance of the universe.

The walls are made of a mixture of branches, earth and cow dung, making a red ochre background for the wall paintings. They use a bamboo stick chewed at the end to make it as supple as a paintbrush. The wall paintings are done only white colour for the paintings which is made by mixing rice paste to water and gum is also used to bind the paste. To make the paint brush the edge of the bamboo stick is chewed. The pared down pictorial language is matched by a rudimentary technique. The ritual paintings are usually done inside the walls of huts only on special occasions such as weddings or harvests.

Unique features

• A very basic graphic vocabulary like a circle, a triangle and a square are used in these rudimentary wall paintings which are monosyllabic in nature. The circle represents the sun and the moon while the triangle derived from mountains and pointed trees.
• However, the square seems to be a human invention which indicates a sacred enclosure or a piece of land. Hence, the square also called ‘chauk’ or ‘chaukat’, is the central motive in every ritual painting. The Devchauk and Lagnachauk are two types of square used in the wall paintings. The mother goddess, Palaghata, who is a symbol of fertility, can be found inside a Devchauk.

Cheriyal Scroll Painting

This school of painting originated from Cheriyal, a place situated in Warangal district of Andhra Pradesh. It is a modernized and stylized version of Nakashi art. A rich scheme of colours is used to depict the scrolls of narrative format from mythology and folklore.

These paintings are Cheriyal scrolls because these paintings are now only confined to Cheriyal villages.  Some historians believe that the cheriyal scroll paintings have its origin in Rajasthan. It is also claimed the Mughal emperors brought this Art to India.

This style of painting is considered culturally and sociologically significant by the people of Telangana. By virtue of its distinct traditional style and characteristics Cheriyal Paintings received Intellectual Property Rights Protection or Geographical Indication (GI) status in 2007.

This traditional form of art became an indispensable and inseparable part of the profession of Kaki Padagollu, a story telling community. The Cheriyal scrolls were displayed by them with the help of music and dance. They went from one village to another, singing and narrating the stories from Indian Epics and Puranas.

The scroll would flow like a film roll. The function of the visual medium was played by the scroll while the song of the bard was the audio medium. The traditional scrolls are normally in vertical format, illustrating stories in a series of horizontal panels. Depending upon the story, the length of the scroll went up to 40 feet and the width used to be around three feet. The two panels were separated by a floral border while the linear narrative was demonstrated by a building or a tree. Each panel of the scroll depicted one part of the story. One scroll would consist of approximately 50 scrolls.  With the narration of the story by the bard, the panel depicting that particular part of the story would be displayed. The selection of episodes and iconography of each deity was done taking into account to the caste for which the scroll was made.

Salient Features of Cheriyal Scroll Paintings

In vivid hues (mostly primary colors) with a predominance of red in the background, these scroll paintings are easy to relate to – as the themes and stories are familiar – drawn from ancient literary, mythology and folk traditions.

• The common themes are from the Krishna Lekha, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Shiva Puranam, Markandeya Puranam and stories of communities like Gauda, Madiga and so on.
• Simple rural life – Women doing chores in the kitchen, working in the paddy fields, festival scenes are so endearingly depicted.
• The costumes and settings in which the figures are depicted are a reflection of the culture of Andhra, where these paintings originated.
• Within the narrow panels, proportion is created by depicting trees, or building, a pillar with drawn curtains, etc.

Patua Paintings

The Patua is a community found in West Bengal. Some Patuas are Hindus, while others are Muslims and Buddhists. The paintings tradition of Patuas was started as a village tradition as painters of scrolls or pats telling the popular mangal stories of the gods and goddesses.

The Patua painters or scroll painters  have gone from village to village with their scrolls or pat singing stories in return for money or food. These pats or scrolls are made of sheets of paper of equal or different sizes which are sown together and painted with ordinary poster paints.