Pater Durga: A brief note
on Patadurga of Hatserandi Village of Birbhum District, West Bengal (published in the Searching Lines, 2015, a students' journal of the History of Art Department, Kalabhavana, Visva-Bharati)
Amitava Adhikari
Gurusaday Dutta in his seminal work “Banglar Rasakala-Sampad” wrote that
generally in the daily life of the interior villages of Bengal, we come across
practice and demand of mainly three kinds of painting activity. Firstly, ancestral practice of narrative
scroll Patachitra by the people of Patua community, secondly floor and wall painting known as Alpana
practiced by village women and thirdly painting on dolls made with clay
and wood. Along with these regular paintings, we get to see painting on sara (round terracotta plate) known as Sarapata and single frame paintings
known as Chaukapata (square Pata) by
the Patuas or Sutradhars or other painter communities of Bengal. Nearly all the
paintings by Patuas of Kalighat were small Chaukapata,
namely images of Radhakrishna, Shiva-Durga, Kali, Lakshmi, Saraswati etc. These
were bought by the visitors to use as home deities as well as to decorate the
walls of their houses.
Ramesh Basu in his article “Banglar Prachin Chitra O Pat” mentions
that E.B. Havell read an article by Ajit Ghose at India Society of Landon on 20th
October 1926. This was later published in the society journal ‘Indian Art and
Letters’ Vol. No. 2 with the title ‘Old Bengal Paintings: Pat Drawings.’ It is stated there that “those oldest Patas
found from Bengal were images of Gods and Goddesses. These Patas were worshiped
as substitute to three dimensional images. The practice still exists in some
villages. Hence it can be claimed that Patas emerged to fulfill religious/
ritual need.” It is farther stated that examples found of this kind of painting
which were made on a surface prepared by putting coating on stretched cloth were
not many. Most of them are images of Durga and other gods and goddesses. There
is a description about an old Patadurga, more than hundred years old (from 1926),
painted by Iswar Sutradhar for some patron of Bishnupur princely state. In this
Pata, Goddess Durga is situated at the centre of a temple painted centrally.
Other figures of gods and goddesses are put at the niches of the temple. At the
top Shiva is shown with his acquaintances Nandi and Bhringi. On the right side
of the Goddess, Lakshmi and Ganesha and on the left side Saraswati and Kartik
are painted. The blue background of the
Pata was highly appreciated in this description. Valuable ornaments and dresses
of the Goddess as painted reference of textile and jewelry excellence of the
time got special mention too.
Patadurga exists in a particular
geo-cultural territory of West Bengal. The practice of worshiping Patadurga can
be seen especially in Birbhum, Bankura, Bardhaman and some areas of West
Medinipur. In this ancient visual repertory ancestral traditions as well as the
method and materials are more or less continuing with the time.
Sudhir Chakrabarty in his book “Chalchitrer Chitralekha” (1993) gave an
insightful account of the life and works of Patuas who are engaged with Chalchitra Pata. Chalchitras are painted
narrative on a semi-circular panel where figures are drawn from Puranic sources
available greatly in folk life of Bengali society. Placed behind- above of the Durga clay idol, Chalchitra creates a backdrop as well as
connect the main idol with references from Purana. Usually painted in a semi
circular space at the top of the backdrop no idol seems complete without a
Chalchitra. Most of the Chalchitra
Patuas come from Kumbhakar (potter) and Sutradhar (carpenter) community as they
are the makers of the idol they paint the Chalchitra also. After painting of
the Chalchitra the idol composition
becomes complete and ready for worshipping.
Chalchitra from different areas as well as from same area with various
artists, bear local-village-family-individual characteristics, all at the same
time with varied degree of synthesis. Sudhir Chakrabarty expresses his despair
about the present state of this field where understanding and appreciation of
this special repertory of folk painting is becoming rare. So the Patuas
involved with the art are losing their interest and it is becoming a usual
practice to paste readymade Chalchitras, bought from the market at the back
drop.
During his field-work for this book on Chalchitra, Sudhir Chakrabarty visited
Hatserandi to meet Kalipada Sutradhar who was the senior most Patachitra artist alive then in the
village. Sudhirbabu gave a compassionate account of the artist’s faith, skill
and despair. That is where he found the existence of Patadurga. Sudhirbabu describes:
“Hatserandi by its name is very unique. It
does not go with the common average village names usually found in Bengal. The
ritual and customs of Durgapuja in this village is also different from all
other places. Because, in this village instead of clay idol, Duga is worshipped
in Patachitra. Earlier all the images
for Durgapuja in this village were painted on Pata. Now six/seven images are Patadurga and remaining five/six are
clay images….. It must be remembered that in our country, practice through Ghat-Pat-Jantra was preferable for
worshipping Devi Durga or Shakti. Use of Murti
or idols came lately. So in one particular village if we found this practice of
Pata- puja then a specific search
about the people, social structure and priest community there can provide some
new information. There is no place here to go deep into this description. But a
hint can be placed here that seventy to eighty families of Brahmin lives there
and this tradition of worshipping Patadurga
in the Chattapadhya family is continuing at least for two hundred years. One
contextual fact is that the Patadurga
is kept there for the whole year after the puja and immersed next year and a
new Patadurga is installed at the
worshipping place. This practice has effects on the colour application of the
Pata. Loud colours are used in the Pata so that it can last for one year.”
Hatserandi is situated eight miles away
from Bolpur by the bus road towards Palitpur. From the bus stop it is half an
hour walk on the moram road through
paddy fields to reach the village locality. Now the road from the bus stop to
the village has been concretized. Hatserandi is also known to some of the
interested scholars and researchers for terracotta temples. Myth says that
there were 108 number of terracotta temples belonging to different families of
the village. But most of them have perished or existing in a decaying state.
Few (5 or 6) of which has got some reliefs on them. Almost 20 years back when
Sudhirbabu went there, Hatserandi was a developing village. He mentioned that
the village got majority population of Sadgops(farming community). Bagdi,
Bauri, Sutradhar and some other communities also inhabit there. The geo-natural
arrangement shows that the structure of the village is very old. The economic
condition of the villagers is more or less stable. Every one Sudhirbabu met
showed respect for the Sutradhar family and showed him the way to the house of
Kalipada Sutradhar. Kalipada Sutradhar with his brother Gurupada Sutradhar and
their sons provided the carpenter’s work for the village. That’s why they were
also known as Mishtri (the title
commonly used in Bengal to mention skilled worker). Along with this regular
work every year Kalipada with his son Adargopal would paint the Patadurgas for Durga puja. Painting
Patadurga for puja was their family tradition. Kalipada was above seventy, half
blind with cataract expressed to Sudhirbabu his eagerness for this act of painting.
Fragment of the conversation between them following below:
S: I heard that you paint most of the Patas
of this village?
K: Yes, you are right. I have crossed seventy seven. As long as I am
getting blessings from my fathers and forefathers and the Mother (Durga) let me paint I will continue
painting. This is not my affair. I do not paint.
S: If you don’t paint then who paints?
K: She makes me paint whose Pata it is.
S: Yes, it is very strange! How do you
paint without the vision?
K:
See, then I have to speak from the beginning. I am writing Pata (Pat lekha) when I started helping my
father since childhood, likely when I was ten. You can say it like an
addiction. When the Devipaksha
(fortnight before Durgapuja) starts my mind is fuelled with eagerness.
Restiveness occupies to write (paint) her rupa
(image). My sons know all these. Surely the mind becomes filled with a pure
serenity. Villagers also come to know that now Kalipada Mishtri will start work
(painting).
This tradition continued with his son
Adargopal Sutradhar. Although Kalipada Mishtri did not get much recognition
from outside Adorgopal had managed to get recognition from the outside world.
Adargopla’s Patadurgas are documented and collected by interested eminent
researchers like Deepak Bhattacharjya. Harubala Sutradhar, wife of Adargopal,
mentioned that Patadurgas by Kalipada Sutradhar were also collected by Deepak
Bhattacharjya, Ashok Kundu and Badal Pal. Adargopal was known to scholars and
artists from Santiniketan and used to get invitation from Poush Mela Committee.
Jhanak Jhanker Narzery, eminent artist and ex principal of Kalabhavana went to
Hatserandi to meet him and see his work. Purnanada Chatterjee, ex principal of
Pathabhavana, writer and reporter with Ananda Bazar Patrika, belongs to the
abovementioned Chattapadhya family of Hatserandi. He also inspired Adargopal
and endorsed his art activity. Adargopal Sutradhar, educated to secondary
standard was serving as work education teacher in Singi High School of a neighbor
village and retired in 2004. He had passed away at age of 72 out of a cardiac
arrest in 11th February 2013. Lately because of his ill health his
cousin brother Manik Sutradhar filled the demand for the Patadurgas. Manik
Sutradhar, son of Badal Sutradhar is an idol maker (Pratima Shilpi) learned painting Patadurga from Adargopal.
Manik Sutradhar’s style of painting to some
extent departs from the family style. His drawing of figures is free flowing
and bears character of primitiveness.
This year Harubala inspired their only son
Ramkrishna to adopt the family tradition and paint for the Chattapadhya family.
So Ramkrishna painted his first Patadurga following his father’s style taking
reference from the photographs of Adargopla’s Patadurga. These photos were
gifted to the family by one researcher (mother and both he could not remember
the name). Ramkrishna is a young man (in his mid twenties), married and father
of a two year old son had interest in art since his childhood. He along with
his mother Harubala helped Adargopal to prepare the Patadurgas. The art works
he produced during his growing years were appreciated in the village. As a
consequence after his high school study he tried to get admission in
Kalabhavana to learn painting. That time he started to come to the campus and
met many senior students at Kalbhavana and showed his drawings and paintings to
get feedbacks. Naturally he was not quite clear about his ambitions but however
vaguely he was looking towards a career as a modern artist. That’s what I felt
when I met him then at Kalabhvana. Somehow he could not pass the first
admission test to Kalabhavana. Dejected by the failure he lost his interest and
did not apply again and slowly got absorbed in other family duties. Now after
his father’s demise and with his encouraging mother he is getting interest in
the family tradition. He is meeting people known to his father and also
managing to present himself to the invitations earlier he would accompany with
his father. Last year during the Poush Mela
Ramkrishna along with his mother met eminent Bengali film actor Ranjit Mallik
who showed special interest to the family tradition of Ptadugra and promised
them that he would visit Hatserandi during coming Durgapuja.
Patadurgas of Hatserandi are usullay six
feet in length and six feet in height with an arch shape at the top end. Along
with the usual Durga and associated images Chalchitra is also painted following
this arch. First the frame is prepared with ripe bamboo and sal-wood. Then a new cloth (Markin Kapar) is pasted on the frame
after making it wet with clay-water solution.. For that purpose sticky clay (entel mati) solution is used. This wet
cloth is stretched with jute rope from behind the frame. When it gets dried the
surface is coated with white chalk (khari
mati) solution. The coating is applied for two-three times. Then the
figures are drawn and composed with faint red colour on the white surface. Then
slowly colours are filled. Dust/earth colours are mixed with gum and water.
Primary colours are mixed in varied proportion to produce different colours and
their shades. After making the figures the back ground is painted with blue.
The black colour is used at the end. Very intelligent application of shades and
colours brings a natural illumination to the whole Pata.
I went to Hatserandi to document Patadurga
during Durgapuja of 2013. Then I found four Patadurgas from four different
families. One painted by Ramakrishna, another by Ratnakar Mete from Gandhpur, a
neighboring village of Hatserandi and other two by Manikchandra Sutradhar.
These Patadurgas are known by the name of their patronizing families. Such as Chatterjee-Barir Patadurga, Rai-Barir Patadurga, Mukherjee-Barir Patdurga and Mondal-Barir Patadurga. Ramkrishna
painted for the oldest puja of Chatterjee family. Previous year Manikchandra
Sutradhar painted for the Chattapadhya family as Adargopla could not do the
work due to ailing health. Usually Adargopal continued with the Chatterjee
familie’s endorsement after his father Kalipada Sutradhar. Facts reveal that
Manikchandra’s father Gurupada Sutradhar also painted Patadurga for this family
beside Kalipada Sutradhar. Same happened with other families too. Due to
different reasons patron families change the artist endorsed for Patadurga. At
present Manikchandra (in his late sixties) is the senior-most artist from
Hatserandi. His main engagement is to produce clay idols for Durgagapuja and
other pujas all through the year. Along with that he is also painting
Patadurgas for more than last ten years. This year he painted for Mojumder-Bari and Mondal-Bari. Ratnakar Mete, in his early forties, has been endorsed
for Mukherjee-Bari’s Patadurga for
last three years. Earlier he had painted for Mondal-bari. Ratnakar’s style of Patadurga is quite different from
the artists of the village. Ratnakar’s Patadurga shows influences of printed
calendar images of Durga. Apart from above mentioned four Patadurgas
another family, Pal-Bari bears this
tradition but in a different way. Ten years back I have seen there a Patadurga
in oil painting on ten feet by ten feet canvas attached to the wall with wooden
frame. Artist’s name ‘M.N. Bhoumik, Durgapur’ was written on the canvas. This
oil painting was painted at least 35 years back from when I saw it. Utpal Pal,
my friend from the family revealed that before this oil Patadurga Sutradher
artists of the village were endorsed to paint for the family. This year I found
there a large size flex image printed from some available calendar image of
Durga.
“Honour both spirit and form – the sentiment within
and the symbol without.”—Teaching
of Sri Ramakrishna
The brief report on the Patadurga of
Hatserandi village reveals a very specific sub-field in the Patua discourse,
which is providing to be a potent force to carry out the traditional mode of
ritual and life as well. There we see and artist’s relationship with the
society is continuing to exist in a dynamic state.
Artist -thinker Benodebehari Mukherjee
observed that, as the traditional artist (karigar) traverses a way of the
convention their individual reflection does not always get surfaced in their
work. In contrary he/she knows what his /her responsibility is. Sudhir
Chakraborty opines in this context to his research on Chalchitra Pata, that
these artists are fallen now from this sense of responsibility to their work
and tradition and traces the cause behind this situation. He observed that the
dilution happens because their works does not pay much and there is a great
lack of connoisseurship also. The common base of faith between the artists and
the society they serve to live has been tattered by the passing time and
changes happening through modernization (read urbanization), commoditization
and universal inclination towards money-capital. In this context we can look
again at Benodebehari’s explanation of the situation from his fundamental
quarries on art, “Shilpa Jiggasa” in
the book “Chitrakar”:
“Man has to do some work to arrange for
food, clothing and shelter. But if all his energy is exhausted to arrange these
basic needs then it becomes impossible to follow any great ideal. For that
leisure is required. Artist, Writer, Philosopher, Scientist all work hard all
over their life to manifest their individual ideal within this leisure. It
becomes difficult for the artist to create art when the society fails to
provide this leisure…. To touch the heart of the society with one’s own heart
and expand his own heart by the heart of the society is the sole responsibility
artist carries forward. If the society tries to displace artist from his own
position then the artist community revolts.”
As we find from the contemporary history of
folk life that if these marginal artists could not succeed to revolt against
the predicament of their ruining profession then what they at the end attempt
is to leave the profession for a life of a lesser workmanship. Who loses and
who wins in the game may be an interesting subject to ponder upon but as a
whole the society loses its elementary aesthetic sense.
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