This time during our trip to Puri ,had the opportunity to visit Raghurajpur Patachitra village situated 15kms away from Puri. This village has been declared a heritage site by National Heritage trust and UNESCO as well. About 140 odd art families reside here . The front room of all the houses are converted into art studios. Many art lovers and artists come here to learn their art, a hostel is built to host such artists.
Raghurajpur is famous for creating Patachitra, a traditional art form which dates back to 5th century BC.Patachitra art of odisha are pictures painted on a piece of cloth--a gauze like fine cotton cloth or old saree is coated with white powder and gum made from tamarind seeds. The colours used for painting Patachitra are all natural colours.
By mixing 5 natural colours viz Red, Yellow, Blue, Black and white 25 colours can be made .
Patachitras mainly depicted mythological stories from Ramayana, Mahabharata and also stories revolving around Hindu gods like Ganesha, Jagannatha, Krishna. The Patachitra beautifully depicted Krishna Leela,10 incarnations of Krishna, exile of Lord Ram and many more.
We were awestruck by the mesmerizing patachitra sketched on palm leaves which were priceless. Palm leaves patachitra art ,it took 2years to complete this sketch. This was definitely not for sale , although estimated sale price is 5.5lakhs rupees
Although this village is famous for Patachitra, they also paint traditional adivasi arts on various objects like hurricanes, aluminium buckets and kettles ,tea cups and glasses, terracotta lantern etc.
The Souvenirs we collected from
Raghurajpur .A patachitra ,a lantern made of palm leaves and a terracotta pot with exquisite patachitra art painted on it.
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