Potuas of Bengal : The Singing Painters

Meeting and watching Mamoni Chitrakar painting is quite a captivating experience. She represents the unique Patchitra tradition of West Bengal. She comes from 'Naya', known as the village of Singing painters. Naya is a small village in the Pingla block in the West Midnapur Distt. of West Bebgal (about 19 km from Kharagpur). These artists are also known as 'Potuas' and all share a common surname 'Chitrakar', which literally means ‘picture makers’.

These artists traditionally paint tales from Mangalkavyas (narratives of Hindu Bengali religious text), Ramayana and Mahabharata etc., but now important incidents or social messages are being painted on long canvas/scrolls. These are usually painted as story-strips—consisting of two more frames—and what is unique that artists sing the story as they unfold the scrolls. These songs are known as ‘Poter Gaan’.

Patuas are Muslims, and they tell the stories of Hindu Gods and Goddesses, and offer devotion to saints at Muslim shrines. They also paint Muslim saints (pirs and fakirs). To describe their paintings, Potuas would unroll a scroll, a frame at a time, and sing their own compositions.

The scrolls are of mainly three different types: (i) Jarano (Rolled), (ii) Chaukosh (Square or rectangular) and (iii) Kalighat style (followed by painters residing near Kalighat temple of Kolkata).

The traditional process of creating is quite intriguing and time tested. It involves several steps. First, the canvas-scrolls are created sewing multiple sheets of thick paper. Jute fiber paper is used. Then the outline of the images is done. Kerosene lamps black soot, vermillion paste used for it. These days many artists use pencils too. Then borders are drawn to demarcate the individual frames.

The primary colours used are white, red, blue, yellow, green and black. All colours come from Mother Nature. Mineral or plant based colours are used. Sap of wood apple tree (bel) is mixed to act as a binder.
Sadly time and economic considerations has forced many Midnapur-Kalighat Potuas to change their traditions a great deal in recent years. Many are now using non-traditional colours/processes. According to an expert, the tradition is kept alive by artisans of Birbhum, Purulia, Murshidabad, Barddhaman and Bankura. 

Completed scrolls are dried in sun and a thin cotton cloth is glued in the back of the painting to give it strength and longevity.