Jhoti, Chita, Muruja

The folk art of Orissa is bound up with its social and religious activities. In the month of Margasira, women folk worship the goddess Lakshmi. It is the harvest season when grain is thrashed and stored. During this auspicious occasion, the mud walls and floors are decorated with murals in white rice paste or pithau. They are called jhoti or chita and are drawn not merely with the intention of decorating the house, but to establish a relationship between the mystical and the material, thus being highly symbolical and meaningful.Throughout the year, the village women perform several rituals for the fulfillment of their desires. For each occasion a specific motif is drawn on the floor or on the wall.


Muruja is drawn on the floor with powders of different hues. White powder is obtained from the grinding of stones, green powder is obtained from dry leaves, black from burnt coconut shells, yellow from the petals of marigold flowers or turmeric, and red from red clay or bricks. Muruja is generally used during rituals in the forms of mandalas.

In the holy month of Kartik (November) women observe penance and draw muruja designs near the tulsi plant. Drawing of muruja designs needs a lot of skill and practice. The powder is held between the tips of the thumb and the forefinger, and allowed to fall delicately through them to form lines and patterns which are a delight to the eye testifying to the innate skill of the practitioners who are generally women.

Paintings

Orissa has an age old tradition of Painting which stretches from the prehistoric rock shelters to the temples and mathas of this century. Out of these the traditional painters , the tribal painter , the folk and rock painters are of significance.

Tribal Paintings

Orissa has a rich tribal culture. The Sauras, the Kondhs and the Santals decorate their houses with motifs of flowers, birds and geometrical designs. The Saura paintings are intimately related to religious beliefs and drawn in order to appease demigods' and spirits. On the occasion of animal sacrifices, the Sauras draw ittals on their walls. The themes of these paintings are usually dream sequences. A medley of objects such as a comb or even a bicycle map figure in modem Saura paintings. The Kondh wall paintings are generally in the form of geometrical designs. Santals also paint their houses with figurative patterns.

Rock Paintings

Painted rock shelters are situated in the densely wooded tracts of western Orissa. The rock shelters at Ulapgarh and Vikram Khol in Sambalpur district, Manikmada and Ushakothi in Sundargarh district, Gudahandi and Yogimatha in Kalahandi district, offer the joy of discovering a primitive culture, rare in the whole of Eastern India. There are natural rocks in these areas covered with prehistoric paintings. The Ravana Chhata Rock al Sitabinjhee of Keonjhar district contains a painting of a very high order. It depicts the procession scene of a King riding a caparisoned elephant. There are horse-riders and soldiers on the march holding shafts and banners, followed by a female attendant. This painting carries reminiscence of Aianta murals. The rock painting in these natural caves are coloured with the help of a twig of a palm tree turned into a brush by hammering its fibrous end. The paintings differ from place to place.

Palm Leaf Paintings
Palm leaf paintings are very ancient in Orissa. In Orissa the Palm Leaf illustrations are mainly of two types,simple engravings or illustrations in pure line on palm leaf and engraving with colour fillings.

The Talapatrachitras or the palm leaf engravings consist of frozen linear drawing as illustrations of manuscripts. In these engravings, colours are muted and play a very minor part. Where colours are at all applied, they are just painted either to emphasize the inscriptions, or to fill up blank space. In Orissa, manuscripts were written on palm leaves even during the Mughal period when the paper was freely available.

In the limited space of the oblong palm leaf with a small width, human figures completed with details of hair style and dress, animals, flowers and trees are executed with great precision and beauty, the tool of this art is a sharp style and it needs a remarkably steady hand to be able to wield this tool on thin strip of leaf.

Patta Chitra

Besides mural paintings, we get miniature paintings, which are called patta chitras. Pattas are now used as wall hangings. The subject matter of Patta paintings is limited to religious themes.

The stories of Rama and Krishna are usually depicted on the pattas. "Rasa Lila", "Vastra Haran", "Kaliya Dalan" are some of the recurring themes of Patta art. Patta chitras of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, the Navagrahas and the deities are also famous.

In some parts of Orissa, during marriage ceremonies, Patta chitras of Durga and Mahadeva are used. The present generation of patta painters paint in the style of the oleography on the walls of big temple.

The Patachitras are paintings on cloth. In the absence of paper, cloth gives an extended smooth surface and is easily transported. Patta paintings are so called because they are executed on silken hand woven both.

They are painted with bright colours and possess a charm peculiarly their own.Their pictorial conceptions, their unique painting technique and line formations together with colour schemes make them a remarkably original art form that is distinct from any other school of painting either in or outside India.

Sand Arts

In Orissa ,a unique type of art form is developed at Puri . But it spreads all over the world . To carve a sand sculpture , the raw material is the only clean and fine grained sand mixed with water .

With the help of this type of sand and with the blessings of God and by the magic of fingures , an artist can carve a beautiful and attractive sculpture on the beach.