The Ramayana in Bengali Folk Paintings

About the BookThe images presented in this book take us into the heart of the rich folk tradition of India. Of that heritage, the display of paintings accompanied by comments recited or sung has been a part since very early times, as attested by references and legends in Sanskrit sources, including the Harsacarita, a 7th-century work by Banabhatta. Known as patacitras or patas in short, these illustrated narratives on rectangular fabric or paper as well as on scrolls are a type of performed art that reaches out to audiences, mostly rural, conveying the artists’ responses to legends and social themes of common knowledge across a wide range of audiences from varied social and cultural bases. A particularly powerful class of such paintings that come from the Bengali- speaking region of eastern India comprise the depiction of events from the Ramayana in the form of scrolls that are unrolled as the painter displays and explicates them.

The vividly colourful images presented in this book occupy a special niche in the history of Indian art, remarkable because they are not only visual objects but narrative expositions of a text that has been part of the lives of vast numbers of the Indian people and often their source of moral guidance. Especially remarkable is that these patas by Bengali folk painters diverge so often from the magisterial Ramayanas of adikavi (“First Poet”) Valmlki, leaving out important parts of it and importing into the Rama saga episodes from local narrative caches. Following conventions of both art and storytelling as they do, these portrayals constitute what is now recognised as the tradition of counter- Ramayanas that embodies alternative alignments of ethical judgment.

About the AuthorMandakranta Bose is Emeritus Professor and Director of the Centre for India and South Asia Research at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. A Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and also of the Royal Society of Canada, Dr Bose holds a BA and MA in Sanskrit from Calcutta University, a second MA in Comparative Literature from the University of British Columbia, and the MLitt and DPhil degrees in Oriental Studies from Oxford. Her research over the past fifty plus years covers four main areas: Sanskrit treatises on the performing arts, the Ramayana, Hindu dharmasastras and religious culture, and gender representation in the arts and literatures of India.

IntroductionThe art of scroll painting goes a long way back in India’s cultural tradition. Found in many regional traditions, it has had a particularly rich history in eastern India, especially in parts of Bengal. However, the colonial era proved to be lean times for indigenous cultural forms, especially with the growing influence of art and literature derived from Western models and sensibilities. Yet the same sensibilities eventually came to evoke interest in India’s native traditions, leading to attempts at reviving them, including folk cultural traditions. By the early 20th century, both scholars and the general public had begun to take delight in rediscovering indigenous art forms, for example, the folk ballads of eastern Bengal indefatigably collected by Dinesh Chandra Sen, thereby saving them for posterity. The art of pata painting was the beneficiary of a similar redemption. The person who brought that about was Gurusaday Dutt, a civil servant, who collected a number of patas and other artefacts between 1929 and 1941 and founded a museum in Thakurpukur, a suburb of Kolkata, which has a rare and valuable collection of folk art. Though not widely seen by urban populations, patas did draw the attention of collectors and eventually found their way into museums. The Ashutosh Museum at Kolkata University is one such repository. Yet in the first part of the 20th century, the art of pata painting was by no means thriving. Despite the efforts of early pioneering lovers of folk culture, there was not much enthusiasm among the general public for the kind of art housed in these collections until much later. Many scholars who lamented the situation noted that the folk arts of India, among them the patas of Bengal, were becoming moribund (Bandyopadhyaya, 1972; McCutchion and Bhowmik, 1999). Later in the century, though, the tide began to turn. In the late 1950s and 1960s, British scholar David McCutchion drew attention to this folk art form and many academics became aware of its value. He taught Comparative Literature at Jadavpur University but he must be remembered more for his passion for temple terracotta sculptures and for these folk paintings, many of which he collected while carrying out research on the temple art of Bengal. Although there were a few scholars and art lovers from Bengal who had been collecting these paintings and were highly knowledgeable in Bengal’s folk art tradition, it would not be unfair to say that David McCutchion was greatly instrumental in bringing them back to the attention of Bengalis and to many foreign scholars at a crucial time when most of us were about to forget this art form and found little value in it. McCutchion’s curiosity and love for temple architecture and the folk arts of Bengal attracted many. Unfortunately, his untimely death in 1970, at the youthful age of 41 years, left many of his findings and thoughts unpublished. Later, some of his friends and colleagues published some of his writings but most of these publications are on English Literature and few on temple or folk art. What we do have of these published writings and letters on the subject give us valuable information. His demise brought to a definite end any possibility of his further contribution to the understanding of this art at that time. He had taken 20,000 pictures of Bengal temples and of folk art, most of which remain unpublished. Part of his collection of patas are in a museum in Coventry, England, where he was born, while his material on Bengal temples is in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. His work in this field still remains unmatched.

Fortunately, from the late 1970s onwards there has been a growing demand for patas, and many researchers have been collecting these paintings. This is not exclusively or even mainly an academic venture; art lovers from all walks of life have contributed to the revival of this genre of folk paintings of Bengal. Several cultural groups, such as the Crafts Council of West Bengal and the Daricha Foundation, have taken on the task of preserving and promoting the art of the patuas and their livelihood; while an yearly festival of patacitras at Naya and Pingla villages in the Medinipur district of West Bengal has become a prized tourist destination. On one of my trips back to Kolkata in the 1990s, I spoke about these painters and their paintings to my niece Tapati Guha Thakurta, noted art historian, who introduced me to several folk painters and their paintings. This was my introduction to the gold mine from which I have drawn material for the present volume.

Having collected a number of painted scrolls, I became curious about their history and began to enquire about the origin and development of the painters as a community, their art form, their lives and their versions of the Ramayana story. I tried to understand the beauty of their art that has attracted so many from different walks of life. I was aware that folk paintings often resemble both classical and folk art forms, and that examples of such hybridity can be found in every corner of India. Also, a large number of both kinds of paintings focus on stories from the epics and various myths and legends of India, shaped in both form and content by their own regional versions. Yet, it is also true that all folk arts have their distinctive styles, particular to the specific region of the Indian subcontinent from which they come. With the recent rise in enthusiasm and interest in cultural tourism and encouragement from the government, folk arts all over India are doing remarkably well and we are now exposed to a great variety of such art forms. Various folk arts have become more and more accessible to everyone to enjoy and appreciate. As I continued to collect patas and to think more searchingly about them, I began to wonder what it was that drew so many people-the painters themselves, their patrons, and academics-to cherish patas. How is it that these paintings continue to thrive? Is it their aesthetic power or do they have some special social, economic or religious appeal? And how has their distinct character evolved from ancient times to the present? A historical enquiry was clearly my first task.

CONTENTS 

	Foreword	9
	Preface	13
	Acknowledgements	15
	Introduction	17
1	The Narrative Tradition of Indian Painting and the Ramayana	29
2	The Bengali Patuas: History, Background and Style	41
3	Songs of the Patuas	51
4	The Ramayana of the Bengali Patuas	63
5	Book I	70
6	Book II	81
7	Book III	83
8	Book IV	92
9	Book V	95
10	Book VI	98
11	Book VII	116
	Summing up	128
	References	131
	Index	135