As a student of Fine Arts, I’m always in awe of the cultural art forms of India like Madhubani, Warli paintings and so on. But one particular art form which owns my heart is the Patachitra.

Patachitra is a cloth-based scroll painting mainly based in West Bengal and Odisha. In this, the scrolls are painted, depicting various scenes from mythological stories. The scrolls were painted with natural

colours, mainly yellow, blue, red and green.

The pats are used to narrate mythological tales. The scrolls are unfurled while narrative songs called Patua Sangeet Or Poter Gaan. Stories of Radha Krishna, Chaitanya and indigenous Bengali folklore of Behula and Lakshinder and Manasha and Chandi are popular.

But Patachitra was recently loosing popularity and it’s value was diminishing. So, a group of innovative Patuas came together and established the Naya Village. Naya village is located in Eastern Midnapore in West Bengal and is inhabited by around 250 Patuas, comprising of painters, lyricist, singers. The walls of

the houses are painted with lively images of animals, plants and men and women to attract tourists.

Moreover they used their pat and started to spread awareness on social issues like conservation of trees, female infanticide, AIDS awareness, and child trafficking. Pat was traditionally passed down from

father to son but now many women have taken up the art.

As a Bengali, I am so proud of this art and the culture thriving beautifully.