Painted songs

By Thomas Kaiser

Subjects: Indic Illumination of books and manuscripts, Folk art, Universität Zürich, Narrative painting, Patas (Art), Indic Narrative painting, Bengali Painting, Indic Scrolls, Juang (Indic people), Universität Zürich. Völkerkundemuseum, Indic Painting, Exhibitions

Description: For over 2000 years and until just a few decades ago artists traveled throughout India, using painted picture scrolls to spread stories from the great Indian epics Mahabharata and Ramayana, as well as a wealth of stories about regional Gods and heroes and moral tales, amongst the mostly illiterate rural population. These artists were the creators and bearers of an art form which spread from India across China to Japan, and westward to the Mediterranean region. In the hands of the painters and singers, the picture scrolls became a portable cinema, projection screens for mythical knowledge and an incentive to listen to the songs whilst looking at the scrolls. Political changes, technical innovation and social turmoil in the twentieth century ushered in profound changes to oral art forms. As their tradition lost significance, the Indian scroll-painting artists also lost their public and their income. Two Bengali picture-scroll traditions still defy adverse conditions; however, whereas the 'patua' rose to the challenge, the 'jadopatia' failed and their tradition is in terminal decline.