Palm leaf painting - Tala-Pattachitra, pride of Odisha

Pattachitra is a traditional popular paintings of Odisha, which is believed to be originated around 5th Century B.C. In its orginal form, it was done on a Palm leaf, though in recent times, cloth based paintings have been more popular. Tala-Pattachitra (Palm is called Tala in Odia, language of Odisha) is one of the most ancient art forms of Odisha as well as India and has admirers world wide. It is believed that, they originated from times when written communications began and have become an art in itself.

The artists prepare the Palm leaves (called Patta, a Sanskrit word) in a seasoning process, before they can do the painting :

• First they cut the Palm leaf into different sizes based on their need. For a bigger painting they are sewn together and cut to the size of need. You can see in the above painting, how many leaves are sewn together and then cut to a round shape. This one is a painting of our great god Jagannath.

• Then they are semi-dried and put in swamps for almost a week.

• Then they treat these leafs with a solution of turmeric, so that the antibacterial properties of turmeric takes care of the longevity of the painting. Some people skip this , if they do not intend to take care of long term preservation.

• And finally they are dried in shades for 1-2 weeks based on climate condition and be ready for painting.

• If its prepared with proper seasoning process, then it may be preserved for centuries, and there are examples of many collections of a few hundred years old palm leaf manuscripts survive to the present date, in different libraries in India.

Painting on these Patta (palm leaves) is also a very unique process. They cannot directly paint on these using colour. Instead, they use an iron stylus with extreme care, to etch the drawing on the leaves. A silly mistake would break the leaf, so a very fine balance and accuracy is needed. After the drawing is inscribed, they rub lamp black over it and clean, giving fine black colour to the carvings. The rest of the surface gets cleaned.

The theme of Patta Chitra is mostly mythological and religious, and it's believed, in ancient times, these were used to worship the God, though in recent times photographs have replaced them. Here are some more pictures :

Sometimes some artists use different themes and use colors as well to make it more attractive.

All these gets sold in stores in the price range of Indian Rupees 1000 - 5000 ( USD 20 - 100). The price mostly depends on the quality as well as the artist reputation. Some big ones even fetches more than a INR 100000 ( USD 2000).

I hope you will enjoy my post. All photographs are my own photographs.