Traditions of Indian Folk-Painting

Storyteller’s scroll depicting the life of Vaishnava saint Chaitanya or Nimai, as well as the various punishments in hell. Water-based pigments on paper; 435 cm x 52 cm. West Bengal. c. early 20th century. 84/6788.

Among the numerous religious patas, or scroll paintings, made by the itinerant patuas or painters of Bengal, this particular scroll depicts the life of the neo-Vaishnava saint Chaitanya or Nimai who lived from A.D. 1486-1533.

The scroll is painted in a sequence of nine panels of which only the last one is presented here. The first one shows an incarnation of Krishna standing under a tree. His six hands are due to his being a composite of Narayana, Krishna and Nimai. The two upper hands, holding a bow and arrow, belong to Narayana, the central two, playing the flute, belong to Krishna, while the lower hands belong to Nimai.

The second panel depicts three figures: the female figure to the left is Nimai’s mother, Shantimata, the central one is Nimai himself, while the one on the right depicts an elderly rishi or ascetic.

The third panel portrays the scene where Nimai renounces the world by leaving his sleeping wife Bishnupiya (Vishnupriya), late in the night, while his deceased father, in the form of a bhuta or spirit, depicted as a dark black figure, looks on.

The fourth scene depicts Nimai as a saint walking in the forest. The fifth scene shows women including Shantimata, Nimai’s mother, and Bishnupiya, his wife, mourning his renunciation.

The sixth panel shows the tonsure ceremony for Nimai’s initiation into sainthood. The scene is of the Kantoyar Ghat, a river bank, with Nimai sitting under a neem tree while his hair is being shaved off by a barber. The Bengali inscription under the tree reads: “Kantoyar (Kantuar) Ghat, Nim talc,” which means: Kantuar river bank under the neem tree.

The seventh panel depicts a number of old men celebrating Nimai’s sanyas or renunciation. The eighth panel portrays an incarnation of Krishna as half Nimai and half-Krishna, painted half yellow and half dark-blue.

The ninth and last panel shows various tortures inflicted in hell by Yama the god of death and his attendants. Since Chaitanya’s lifespan is at the end of the Tretayuga and the beginning of Kalayuga, where vice and evil characters inhabit the world, the last panel in every Chaitanya scroll necessarily depicts the punishments in hell.

Madhubani painting depicting “cycle of life”, detail. Ink on paper; 322 cm x 142 cm. Work of Ganga Devi, Madhubani, Bihar, Contemporary. 84/6704.

Ganga Devi is one of the most renowned painters of the Madhubani style of painting. As an artist, she belongs to the Kayasth tradition of women painters, but tradition is not a constraint in her work. Through her unique perceptions of the world and nature around her, she depicts her paintings as personalised images connected with each other by a worldview which is very much her own.

Her capacity to transform experience into pictorial images — whether ritualistic, symbolic, iconographic or narrative — makes her a painter who seems to be “traditional” in her “modern” work and “modern” in her “traditional” work.

This large painting from which this detail is taken was executed sometime in the early ’80s. It depicts the “cycle of life” as is customary in the traditional life style of Mithila from the time the child is in the womb. It includes a woman being anointed for fertility; a child inside the womb praying: “O God, relieve me from the hell”; the birth of a child; care of the mother, worship of the goddess Chatthi; visitors to see the child; the deity Chitragupta “writing” the “destiny” of the child; the ritual of the goddess Chatthi in honour of the male child; the ritual of keeping away the evil eye; purification of the body and celebration; worship of the goddess Bhagvati, while children are playing in the sun or with a parrot; a scene of eating, walking and playing; a tonsure ceremony; a child being brought to school; two girls playing being man and woman to please the god of rains; carrying a basket full of objects to celebrate the festival of brother and sister; the temple of Shiva and Parvati; worshippers approaching the temple; an engagement ceremony; a wedding ceremony; the completion of the wedding ceremony; the bride leaving for the house of the bridegroom; the bridegroom proceeding to his home after the wedding ceremony, above the palanquin on the right the newly-married bride shown as a pregnant woman; and so the continuity of the passage of life, from birth to birth.

The detail in the picture shows the bride being decorated for the ceremony.

Jagannatha temple at Puri. Pigment on rag board; 55 cm x 51 cm. Orissa, c. early 20th century. 7/6104.

Pilgrim paintings as souvenirs are a common tradition in India where elaborate cults develop around a shrine or temple. The Jagannatha temple at Puri, on the coast of the Bay of Bengal, is the centre of the cult of Jagannath, the “Lord of the World”. The majestic temple of Puri, depicted in this patachitra or painting on rag board, for the benefit of pilgrims, “was built in the 12th century A.D…probably in the last decade of the long reign of Anantavarman Codagangadeva… in order to gain religious merit and to create a lasting symbol of his own glory, he built the temple of Purushottama in Puri which was to be higher than any temple in Orissa known before.”

This painting conceptualises the awe-inspiring temple at Puri along with its main deities, “the Jagannath trinity which was developed in the Ganga period and consists of the juxtaposed gods Vishnu (Jagannath, Krishna) and Siva (Balabhadra, Samkarsana) together with a common Sakti (Subhadra, Katyayani)”.

1 Eschmann, et. al. (eds.), 1986, p.1.
2.Ibid, p.15

Detail of Garoda scroll. Water colours on paper; 279 cm x 56 cm. Gujarat. c. mid-20th century. 88/5/D.

The Garodas are a community of traditional storytellers from Gujarat who are known not only for painting and narrating legends, but also for painting horoscopes for newly born children. Unlike the chitrakatha, or storytelling traditions from Bengal and Rajasthan, the painted scrolls of the Garodas depict many legends in a single scroll.

The picture scrolls, known as tipanu in Gujarati, meaning “recording” or “remark”, are usually more than 3 m long and 35 cm broad and generally depict the following scenes:

A shrine in the centre of which is a full vase topped by a coconut; two horsemen in profile representing the heroes Aldang and Ni clang; four-armed Ganesha, often accompanied by his wives Riddhi and Siddhi; Shiva, usually riding his vehicle the bull Nandi, often flanked by goddesses, one of whom holds a snake, or bow and arrow, and the other a scorpion; goddess Lakshmi; the local story of Dhana Baghat; two goddesses, one riding a tiger, the other a cock (local goddess Bahuchara), killing the buffalo demon; Krishna quelling the snake king Kaliya; the Shravana episode from the Ramayana, depicting Dasharatha aiming his arrow at the youth carrying his blind parents seated on planks suspended from a pole slung across his shoulders; Rama and Lakshmana aiming at a two-headed deer, while Sita is sitting in a garden pavilion; two-armed Hanuman; ten-headed Ravana; the story of the truthful king Harishchandra; the game amli-pipli played between the Pandavas and Kauravas, wherein an over-sized figure of Bhima, with half his body in red and the other half in silver, is shaking the tree; the legend of Chelaiyyo, popular in Gujarat; Ramdev Pir of Ranuja, one of the deified heroes of Rajasthan, depicted by his footprints, his horse and his bride Netal; and finally the various punishments in hell and rewards in heaven. The detail here depicts the game of amli-pipli.

Chitrakathi or “illustrated legend”. Natural pigments on handmade paper; 44 cm x 32 cm. Maharashtra. c. late 19th century. 7/4315.

The Chitrakathis, a nomadic community of storytellers, were once found all over Maharashtra and some parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Until quite recently they would travel from village to village, unpack their pothi or bundle of rectangular paintings, and begin their long sessions of narrating myths and legendsDetail of Garoda scroll. Water colours on paper; 279 cm x 56 cm. Gujarat. c. mid-20th century. 88/5/D. The Garodas are a community of traditional storytellers from Gujarat who are known not only for painting and narrating legends, but also for painting horoscopes for newly born children. Unlike the chitrakatha, or storytelling traditions from Bengal and Rajasthan, the painted scrolls of the Garodas depict many legends in a single scroll. The picture scrolls, known as tipanu in Gujarati, meaning “recording” or “remark”, are usually more than 3 m long and 35 cm broad and generally depict the following scenes: A shrine in the centre of which is a full vase topped by a coconut; two horsemen in profile representing the heroes Aldang and Ni clang; four-armed Ganesha, often accompanied by his wives Riddhi and Siddhi; Shiva, usually riding his vehicle the bull Nandi, often flanked by goddesses, one of whom holds a snake, or bow and arrow, and the other a scorpion; goddess Lakshmi; the local story of Dhana Baghat; two goddesses, one riding a tiger, the other a cock (local goddess Bahuchara), killing the buffalo demon; Krishna quelling the snake king Kaliya; the Shravana episode from the Ramayana, depicting Dasharatha aiming his arrow at the youth carrying his blind parents seated on planks suspended from a pole slung across his shoulders; Rama and Lakshmana aiming at a two-headed deer, while Sita is sitting in a garden pavilion; two-armed Hanuman; ten-headed Ravana; the story of the truthful king Harishchandra; the game amli-pipli played between the Pandavas and Kauravas, wherein an over-sized figure of Bhima, with half his body in red and the other half in silver, is shaking the tree; the legend of Chelaiyyo, popular in Gujarat; Ramdev Pir of Ranuja, one of the deified heroes of Rajasthan, depicted by his footprints, his horse and his bride Netal; and finally the various punishments in hell and rewards in heaven. The detail here depicts the game of amli-pipli. from the epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the vast “ocean” of folklore and local legends preserved in their oral tradition.

The most typical features of the Chitrakathi paintings are their bold and powerful drawings in thick black outlines. The human figures are shown both in profile as well as in frontal view, while the animals are mainly in profile. The faces are stereotyped with a high forehead, a prominent pointed nose, a curve for the mouth, and one for the chin, while a red line indicates the lips. The eyes are the most animated feature of these paintings for they are conceived as large white circles marked by a black dot for the pupil in the centre.

This particular piece depicts Sita, wife of Rama, who was abducted by the chief of the demons Ravana, sitting pensively in the Ashoka grove guarded by two demons holding swords and shields, while Hanuman, concealing himself in the foliage of the tree above Sita, identifies himself as Rama’s messenger by dropping Rama’s ring into Sita’s outstretched palm.

The child Krishna mischievously stealing butter. Pigment, gesso and gold on board; 108 cm x 78 cm. Thanjavur, Tamilnadu. c. late 18th century. 7/201(A).

Thanjavur, modern Tanjore, is famous for a rare kind of painting on glass and gesso work on board. Both these types are richly embellished with gold leaf and imitation or real gems as ornaments. The relief work of this painting is achieved by applying gesso, which is a mixture of gypsum or plaster of Paris and glue.

Here Balakrishna, or “child” Krishna, adorned with jewels and a peacock feather in his hair, is shown mischievously enjoying his stolen butter. He is seated on a gilded throne against an arched background and guarded by winged angels holding garlands. As his mother chides him with a raised finger, Krishna’s hands tighten possessively on the stolen pot of butter.