Paitkar

Etymology: The name 'Paitkar' could be considered to be a variable of the Pata or Pata Chitra scroll paintings.

Origin: Paitkar paintings originate from the Amadubi village situated in the Eastern part of Jharkhand, this village is called Paitkar village.

Location: These paintings were popular once in Orrisa, Bihar, and West Bengal but this art form is exclusively practised in Amadubi village. Although, the roots for Paitkar paintings can be traced back to the cultural practices carried out in West Bengal.

Community: Paitkar paintings are made by Bengali painters called 'Chitrakara', which translates to picture makers.

Relevance: Paitkar paintings are a cross-generic story-telling art tradition that portrays the socio-religious customs of the region. These paintings reflect the events from day-to-day life and talk about the mythology and legends of their society.

Historical Background: This scroll painting mirrors Bengali and Jharkhandi folklife. The roots of the Paitkar paintings can be traced to the cultural practices of West Bengal. Paitkar paintings can be seen as a subset of Pata Chitra scroll paintings, it is one of the easiest folk paintings of India.

Culture and Societies: This art form is traditionally practised by men. It is transgenerational and is passed down from father to son. The Chitrakar community not only creates Paitkar paintings, but they also dabble in making relief sculptures on bricks, weaving on palm leaves, and crafting items out of waste tin.

Religious significance: These paintings depict scenes, motifs, and characters from the Hindu epics of Ramayana, Mahabharata, Manasa song (Manasa pada), and Kali song (Kali Pada). The characters from Ramayana that they focus on are Rama, Sita, and Mandudari. Besides, tribal religious rituals like Karam puja, Dansai, Baha, etc also get reflected through this art form.

Central motifs and their significance: The paintings depict themes such as the origins of life, Hindu history and legends, tribal lifestyle, rituals, and festivals.

Style: Paitkar paintings are vertical scrolls. These are flat paintings that make use of thick lines to outline and paint the elements within paintings. The human subjects occupy most of the space in these scroll paintings. They are portrayed in either profile or semi-profile. Their eyes are elongated which reflects the classical Indian painting style.

Mediums used: The artists use natural colours prepared from leaves, stones, and soil, and to preserve these pigments the colours are mixed with fruit gum and neem resin. The white colour is either extracted from lime powder or some artists leave the area blank where they want to paint white to specify the colour white, red is assembled from Red Hematite (Gerua Patthar) and yellow is prepared from yellow ochre stone Haldi Patthar or Tumeric Haldi. The colour orange is derived from the Palash flower and brown is made from brownstone. Similarly, the colour black is derived from burnt rice, lamp soot, and ashes from kerosene lamps, the colour blue is made from indigo, and green is created from broad bean leaves.

Process: Although traditionally, these paintings were made on stacked palm leaves, now paper and cloth are used. They prefer to paint on the rough side of the paper. The subject of the paintings are usually scenes and stories in segments which are sewn together with a needle and a thread. They stick layers of cloth to strengthen the surface. The artists usually draw the elements of the painting with a pencil, and to bifurcate the panels they draw thick bold borders. They finish the painting by making outlines in black paint to add to the boldness which in turn gives these paintings a finished and complete look.

Although much like many folk arts that got their due recognition much later since their inception, these scroll paintings are on the decline. Local artists such as, 'Moni Chitrkar, Vijay Chitrkar, Anil Chitrakar, Subhash Chitrakar, Ganesh Gayan, and Kishor Gayan' are working towards preserving their folk art by teaching and training the younger generations about it and working with organisations such as Jharcraft and the Jharkhand Tourism Development Corporation (JTDC) to organise tours and exhibits.

Shah, N. (2021). Indian etiquette: a glimpse into India's culture. Chennai, Tamil Nadu: Notion Press Media Pvt Ltd.