Revision as of 18:56, 19 November 2023

Goddess Durga depicted on cloth

Birbhum, 2023

Neha Banka, Oct 24, 2023: The Indian Express

The ‘pat er Durga’, where the Goddess Durga is created on cloth instead of the more conventional clay, traces its origins to Odisha’s Patachitra paintings.

Different from the conventional clay idols commonly seen in India and other parts of the world where the festival is celebrated, Sutradhar has been creating the goddess on cloth, in the form of a painting, similar to the Patachitra style. This form of creating the deity on cloth, instead of using clay, has its own name – ‘pat er Durga’.

Patachitra painting dates back to the 12th century and its origins can be traced to the modern-day state of Odisha. The word ‘patachitra’ is a combination of two words in the Sanskrit language, where ‘pata’ means ‘cloth’ and ‘chitra’ means ‘picture’. It is a narrative scroll art and a form of storytelling, focusing on themes of mythology and culture, told through the use of songs.

It is difficult to determine the exact year when Patachitra as an art form reached Bengal but art historians believe that it occurred approximately three centuries ago. “When people migrated from Odisha to Bengal back then, they brought the tradition of Patachitra with them. In their native homeland, they would worship Durga on Patachitra and carried this form of worship when they travelled to Bengal,” says Dipankar Ghosh, an independent researcher on folk art and tribal culture of Bengal, who has conducted extensive research on the subject.

The depictions of the deity in ‘pat’ have their origins in this form of folk art. “Although the families migrated from Odisha, the artisans who created Durga on Patachitra did not. So they were compelled to find local artisans in Bengal who could do the same form of art,” says Ghosh. Over the years, the practice of worshipping the deity spread outside the homes of the migrant families from Odisha and was adopted by others in different parts of Bengal.

But that is just half the story: depictions of Durga on ‘pat’ did not start just by imitating families who had come from Odisha. There were many reasons, Ghosh says. One of the primary reasons was because of the economics surrounding the festival. Worshipping the goddess in the form of a clay idol is expensive, especially because the festival spans 10 days.

The ‘pat’, because of the medium used for painting, is relatively more affordable. Another reason, Ghosh says, has to do with the presence of a presiding deity in a village where the religious festival is being held. “Sometimes in villages, there is a presiding deity in wood or stone and villagers believe that it is not appropriate for Durga to be worshipped in the same medium. So they prefer a less elaborate medium like ‘pat’.”

At Purbachal Shakti Sangha in southern Kolkata, Dasgupta has been busy for months creating installations inside a pandal for the festive week. (Photo credit: Partha Dasgupta) There are other factors as well. In a case when the festival has historically been held by specific families, and internal fractures cause a family to break up into nuclear units, family members may still want to practice the rituals, they choose a ‘pat’ because the idol is not available. Another reason is the ease of using ‘pat’ as a medium. “I have found that a family may have worshipped an idol in the past, but for some reason, at a point in time, the idol was damaged. So they switched to ‘pat’,” says Ghosh. Looking at the paintings of Durga in ‘pat’, it is immediately clear that it is very different from the idols seen in Kolkata. “It is very indigenous, very folkish. This is a very localised form of the art because it never became urbanised. Perhaps because this art form did not reach Kolkata, the form remained rustic,” says art historian Anjan Sen. “Although over the decades, these rural artisans did begin to travel to Kolkata to see what we call the more urban art forms, they have still kept the form unchanged in Hatserandi.” A seventh-generation artist involved in this form of painting, Sutradhar in Birbhum’s Hatserandi village has been creating Durga in ‘pat’ for over a decade now. While there are a handful of artists scattered across the villages of south Bengal who paint Durga in ‘pat’, Hatserandi stands out. The ‘pats’ coming out of this village show the deity in a relatively more stylised form, with a refinement not seen in other parts of Bengal where the deity is worshipped in this medium.

That is because in this village, what has developed is similar to a gharana, not seen in other places, says Ghosh. It would not be an exaggeration to call it so, he says, citing Sutradhar’s example. The style of painting the deity that was started by his ancestors 300 years ago has continued and is being maintained by Sutradhar now. In the other villages where this art form is found, neither is the style as refined as the one seen in Hatserandi, and neither is there a fixed set of artists.

A seventh-generation artist involved in this form of painting, Sutradhar in Birbhum’s Hatserandi village has been creating Durga in ‘pat’ for over a decade now. (Express photo by Neha Banka) “Only one or two more people in our village do this style of painting,” says Sutradhar. Months before the festival is about to begin, orders for two to three of these paintings come in for his work. When he is not painting, he takes care of his family by driving an auto in and out of nearby villages in Birbhum.

“They are not artists in the sense that we understand,” says Partha Dasgupta, an artist based in Kolkata, of the ‘pat’ painters of Hatserandi. Far from the villages of Birbhum, at Purbachal Shakti Sangha in southern Kolkata, Dasgupta has been busy for months creating installations inside a pandal for the festive week. The theme that Dasgupta has used this year for the installations has been inspired by the artisans of Hatserandi, for which he spent days researching the subject.

“The main profession of the people who are creating this in Hatserandi is something completely different. They make these paintings on the side,” says Dasgupta.

There is another reason why the ‘pats’ of Hatserandi are so unique. “The ‘pats’ that are painted are for the common people’s homes. They are not for the homes of the rajas. These were its origins.”

Before Durga Puja became a community affair in around 1759, in pre-Independence India, the festival was celebrated only within the homes of zamindars and other wealthy residents, again because of the expenses involved.

“But the common people in the village, those who farm, labourers etc, also wanted to celebrate the festival and decided to worship using a ‘pat’. But to create a ‘pat’, you need to know how to paint. So they requested a member of the carpenter community who had an artistic bend. That carpenter drew a Durga figure according to his skills. That is the uniqueness of that village. Till today, common people still do a ‘pat’ drawing and pray because that is all they can afford,” says Dasgupta.

The surname ‘Sutradhar’ comes from the carpenter community, indicating the origins of this work in Ramkrishna Sutradhar’s family, who switched to making these ‘pats’ just before the festival.

It is difficult to give a number for how many artists in villages across southern West Bengal are creating Durga paintings for the festival on ‘pat’, say researchers. In many cases, villagers turn to the most artistic individual they can find, with a request to sketch and paint the deity so that it can be used for the rituals during the festival.

However, Ghosh believes that the number of homes in southern Bengal where families are worshipping the goddess in this medium, according to data collected by him between 2007 and 2021, is around 150.

“The worship is happening in private spaces so it is hard to find information about which family is praying this way. Sometimes even villagers themselves don’t know that it is happening in their village,” says Ghosh.

Painting these ‘pats’ is a huge challenge, says Sutradhar. It is also not possible to do this as a primary occupation, as in the case of the idol makers of Kumartuli, because these ‘pats’ are only made for Durga Puja and for no other festival during the year, a practice that has not changed. Not only is the work time-consuming it is also physically demanding where artists like Sutradhar have to be hunched over the frames for hours, depending on the size of the canvas.

They also do not sell for too much money. The most an artist like Sutradhar can earn from a frame eight feet high is around Rs 8,000, he says. In a season, he is only able to produce two to three such pieces, depending on the number of orders that come in, and the time he is able to spare from his day job of driving the auto.

Although Sutradhar paints these elaborate paintings, they are never for his own home. “We just paint it for other people’s homes,” he says. Although the medium is different, the religious practices involved in worshipping the deity are no different from doing it when there is a clay idol involved.

The rituals are the same, as are the regulations and the associated costs; too high for the families of the artisans who make these elaborate paintings. While Sutradhar has been teaching his young son this form of painting, he is not sure whether he would be interested in continuing the family tradition.

But Ghosh does not believe that there should be any concern regarding the existence of this. “This is not an endangered art form. It will continue because there is a religious association to it. When that happens, art forms like these don’t stop.”