Raghurajpur

Famous for its Patta Chitra paintings, this artists’ village 14 kms from Puri, makes an interesting excursion. No village is more involved in preserving India’s priceless skills than Orissa's Raghurajpur with its thatched, brick, houses on high plinths with sit-out platforms and artists busy at work. This is where at the end of this 'stony' jaunt comes some relief in the form of some breathtaking paintings.

The paintings are done on specially prepared cotton cloth, which is coated with a mixture of gum and chalk and polished, before applying natural colours. Little girls sit in front of house with a mural of the great Trinity of Puri, and a flowering creeper in the religious folk-art style. Craftsmen carve effigies out of wood and paint them in vivid, primary, colours. Bright altars for the homes of devotees are nailed together with a jeweller's care, and then painted. Originally these pattas were affixed to the sheltering screen behind which Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra (the Puri Trinity) rested for fifteen days. The paper on which Patta Chitras are painted is specially prepared using a paste made of tamarind seeds and powdered chalk. This makes it parchment-tough. Using delicate brushes, the fine outlines of the painting are drawn. These, are then, filled in with colours to create pictures from the epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana. Though the arts of Raghurajpur were originally inspired by religious themes, the artists have responded to changing demands and have begun to handle secular subjects with the same painstaking finesse. Everyone here seems to be either an established artist, an aspiring artist, or a probationary one. And art overflows everywhere.