Course 208201 Kalighat Painting Adaptation of Traditional Art

Course 208201 Kalighat Painting Adaptation of Traditional Art in Colonial Urban Setting

Patachitra • Traditional usage: ritualistic • Narrating Panchali or Mangalkavya through visual narrative • Essentially jarano-pata- multi-frame accompanied by songs • Chitrakars and Patuas- traditional caste • Rural patronage

Jorano Pata

Jorano pata- single frame

Advent of Colonialism • With the coming of the colonial rule, especially after the Permanent Settlement, the traditional patronage as well as the patron - client relationship in rural areas collapsed • A section of the traditional chitrakars and patuas especially from the surrounding villages migrated to colonial Calcutta in search of patronage

Kalighat temple and the Traditional Congregation • Kalighat Temple • Pilgrimage centre • Influx of pilgrims from rural areas as roadways and railways developed • Patuas congregation around the temple • But the style changed drastically

Kalighat Patas- Urban product • • • Stylistic change 1. single frame 2. not part of a performance as jorano patas. 3. sweeping outlines and flat colours 4. little details 5. background remained blank or painted in single colour

Kalighat Patas • • • Themes Religious- not only about Kali Social- often Satirical Political- contemporary topics Techniques Vegetable and natural dye On cheap hand-made paper Production process- using family skills Cheap and rudimentary techniques

Kalighat Pata- religious- abaout Kali and Kalighat

Religious- beyond Kali- Shiv and the family

Religious- Even Vaishnavas and Hanumana from Ramayana

Religious patas- Usages • Icons • Memento of pilgrimage • Incorporating various icons- proof of heterogeneous pilgrimage population

Social: A ‘Slice of Urban Life’ on circulation

Kalighat painting: A glimpse of the society from the bottom • Highlighting the social cleavage • Sumanta Banerjee: ‘ A view from the bottom’, which is hardly present in the contemporary written chronicles about the city • Babus as the leisurely section were the target of banter • their extravagant lifestyle, promiscuity were addressed • Women’s question: Traditional patriarchal position

Critiquing Babus

Animals: Interesting insight

Women empowerment

Elokeshi episode: Presenting the case from traditional patriarchal position

Elokeshi episode: Presenting colonial court as the ultimate arbitrator in social matters

Lakshmibai: When Bhadroloks were afraid to utter her name

Conclusion • Decline • As they had to negotiate with the changing taste of the native upper classes • Had to compete with the emerging printing technology like oleograph and chromolithograph which could reproduce colour prints with lesser cost

References • Sumanta Banerjee: The Parlour and the Streets: Elite and Popular Culture nineteenth Century Calcutta • Mildred Archer: Indian Paintings of the British Period • Ratnabali Chatterjee: From Karkhana to Studio: A Study in Changing Social Roles of Patron and Artist in Bengal