#Didyouknow that fifty kilometres from Aurangabad in Maharashtra state of India is Paithan, called Pratishtanpur in older times ? It was the capital of the Satavahana dynasty, which ruled from the second century BC to the second century CE. It is mentioned in the famous first-century Greek book, the 'Periplus of the Erythraean Sea'. Paithan is associated with many spiritual leaders from all faiths. It is known for its exquisite Paithani sarees, but the place is also associated with a unique folk art form called chitrakathi.

What is Chitrakathi ?

Story telling through pictures is an ancient tradition, Jain texts like Bhagavati Sutra uses the word ‘mankh’ which refers to a narrator using pictures. Another text from the 8th century Kuvalayamala mentions a nomadic guru explaining the samsar chakra or Cycle of life using a painted scroll painting. North East India use this for the Yama pata – a series of paintings describing the punishments of hell as per sins on the earth. In Bengal the tradition of ‘Jadu-patuas’ exists since yore. Interestingly a unique style of painting practised by the Chitrakathi community has evolved to be known by the same name, originating from Paithan and Pinguli in Maharashtra during the 17th -18th centuries. The community folk were travelling story tellers who roamed from village to village narrating tales from Indian mythology and the great Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. They used song, puppets, mime and paintings to illustrate their stories. This tradition was spread in mostly Western Deccan, Maharashtra, North Karnataka and some areas of Telangana. The term can be broken up into ‘chitra’ and ‘katha’ meaning picture and story respectively. A Chitrakathi is one who narrates a story using pictures or paintings. The Thakar tribal community were Chitrakathi artists who came to this region in the mid 18th century and conducted shows to an enthralled audience. They used single sheets of 40-50 paintings, called ‘pothi’ relating to a particular legend, which after the show would be stored as a bundle and tied with a cloth called ‘rumal’. The Thakar community is a nomadic tribe who painted on leaves and handmade paper. They narrated the stories from the epics as entertainment and during festivals at night. Shivaji Maharaj encouraged their art form. The community travelled as bards and became spies for the Maratha king and later for the Sawant Bhonsales of Sawantwadi who gave them land at Pinguli.

Bold and beautiful

This art form has bold and stylised figures reminiscent of both mural art and miniature paintings. The size was 22cm x 42cm usually but could be customised as per the village needed and size of the audience. However the Pinguli and Paithan styles are different and form the two types of Chitrakathi. Pinguli art shows Maratha-Deccan-Mughal influence whereas the Paithan style shows Ajanta influence.

Sri D.G Kelkar (1896 -1990) discovered 150 paintings in the 1960s as mentioned by Dr. D. N Varma in his write up on Paithan paintings in 1996. He has delved into the reasons which infused dynamism into the medieval art of  Chitrakathis were a ‘’body of people’’ who travelled from village to village and narrated mythological stories to village audiences. He notes that ‘’the inspiration behind these paintings was not the art of painting or plastic arts but the stage and the theatre’’. He further adds that the…. the portraiture and treatment of characters in this art reflect the vision of a drama. Also the association with puppetry could have affected the climate of the painting. The Pinguli artists are good at painting and puppetry. The figures made in the Paithan paintings resemble the puppets of Karnataka. The political context of the times when these paintings were made could have possibly reflected on the art like the conflicts of the Deccan Sultanates, the Mughal invasions and the Maratha-Mughal battles.

The paintings discovered by Sri Kelkar which were from Paithan (which became part of Raja Dinkar Kelkar Museum at Pune) were different from the Mughal, Rajput or Deccani paintings. They were done in a bold stylised fashion pasted back to back, 25 cm x 38 cm and depicted episodes from the epics Ramayana and Mahabharata. They were given the name “Paithan painting’’, a tradition of painting which was more than 200 years old. The paintings were props to convey stories; they were in a sequence as per the story/legend it depicted. These paintings are the ‘chitra’ or picture used by the ‘kathi’ or the narrator.

The Chitakathi paintings have been well analysed and described by Anna L. Dallapiccola who says…”There is a certain monumentality reminiscent of wall paintings. Clear and elegantly sweeping lines define the scenes which although simple in design are extremely sophisticated in detail’’. In the paintings the human figure is the focus. The male is depicted as imposing with a powerful chest and narrow waist. The women are depicted wearing beautiful clothes and bedecked with jewellery. The emotions come through with the posture and stance of the character being portrayed. The paintings were laid out mostly horizontally. The climax of the episode or scene was depicted and the narrator engaged the audience with the other details of the episode by use of mime etc. Diagonal lines suggested situations of fear or flight. The main character of the scene is shown larger than the others who are depicted flanking him. If groups were shown they would occupy the same platform sitting or standing if they are of equal importance. The repetition of the same pattern can be noted in the paintings. Individuals were given their space, as in outdoor scenes it would be well defined by a tree or shrub.

Present scenario

Few Thakar families still practice Chitrakathi and are having old pothis with which they told stories, who are now settled in Pinguli but are originally from the upper regions of the Sahyadri hill range and towards the middle of the 18th century came to Sawantwadi under the patronage of Prince Jayaram Sawant (r.1738-1752 A.D.) as already mentioned. They slowly gave up their nomadic style of life and settled down in Pinguli. The painted ‘pothis’ or manuscripts are made up of folios which are large rectangular sheets stuck back to back. Both sides are painted. The ones which they have now are not earlier than 19th century. Some were made in early 20th century using British water marked paper. Some of the paintings remind of the shadow puppets of Karnataka and Andhra/Telangana and some are done with sober, muted colours and convey a sense of poise. At Pinguli, Parashuram Gangawane (a Padmashree awardee by the Govt. of India) and his family are Chitrakathi artists from the Thakar community who are continuing this ancient art form of story telling using old pothis, puppets, musical instruments and also innovating with contemporary interpretations. They have opened a museum, the Thakar Aadiwasi Kala Aangan Museum and Art Gallery and conduct shows at their museum, the Sindhudurg Fort and a local temple. Some other prominent Chitrakathi artists are Ganpat Masge, Jayashree Patankar, Alaka Bhandiwad, Indira Seshadri, Meenakshi Madan, Rajasri Manikandan, V Shanmughapriya, Shoba Rajagopalan, S. Suresh and Vaishnavi Srikanth.

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Soma Ghosh

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