Mukha-Dinajpur

The famous scene of abduction of Seeta by Ravana, as depicted in Ramayana, is painted here in this piece of art by Bahadur Chitrakar. The giant bird Jatayu came to rescue Seeta but could not succeed as he got wounded by Ravana’s sword. Such stories of the Hindu epics make for the  subjects of many of these art pieces by the Pata Shilpis. It’s quite an old piece of art and is a heritage of Bengal’s culture. 

A scene from the saga of Radha and Krishna, essentially the most famous of Hindu deities, serves as one of the set of paintings that the Pata Shilpis show while singing the mythological story of Rashlila. These sets are shown accompanied by songs narrating stories of Radha - Krishna, to the villagers who cannot read the books but love to know more about them. This piece is done by Rajesh Chitrakar. 

The location of these Patachitra Shilpi or artists falls in a place, popularly known as Jangal Mahal in West Bengal. The area is home to a number of indigenous tribes like Santhals, Vills, Mundas. The paintings, for obvious reasons, depict the tribal culture. One such example by Nazra Chitrakar, who learnt the art from her older generations and is now passing it on to her successors. The painting shows how the tribal youth goes hunting and come back with their catch. 

This painting, by Bahadur Chitrakar, is a scene from the Manasa Mangal, also known as Padmapuran, a folk lore based on Hindu mythology. The deity of snakes, Devi Manasa is one of the protagonists of the story who compels Chand Saudagar, a rich businessman, to worship her by hook or crook. Chand was a worshipper of Shiva and he would never want to pay homage to Manasa. To fulfil her desire, Manasa sends her snakes to bite Chand’s son Lakhindar to death. Behula, the wife of Lakhindar, takes all the pain to make piece between Manasa and Chand, and subsequently gets back her husband to life.