Workshop revives Assam’s manuscript painting ‘puthichitro’
Organised at Kolkata’s Aikatan Cultural Complex by the Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre (EZCC) and the Ministry of Culture in collaboration with renowned artist Sujit Das and a team of artists, the workshop on Assam’s traditional manuscript painting offered a rich cultural experience.
Linked with the religious history of Assam, the Puthichitro art form has a profound cultural significance which follows the works of the 15th-century polymath, saint-scholar, social reformer, and artist Srimanta Sankardev. Assam has about 150 illustrated manuscripts, out of which two restored manuscripts on muga textiles. Some of these have more than 150 or 200 paintings, such as the Haribangsha Puran, Kumor Haran, and Kalki Puran.
Traditionally drawn on sanchipaat,bark of the sanchi tree, or on tulapaat, a canvas made by mixing cotton, cow dung, and other organic material, the illustrations generally depict mythical and historical stories accompanied by the text. Many manuscripts from medieval times present alluring examples of manuscript painting.
The colors for the paintings were extracted from natural sources such as Neel (indigo) for blue, dholmaati or khorimaati (sandalwood) for white, other natural sources such as the red hengul and yellow hiatal that once came from plants, now come from mineral colors that are ground with a stone.
The manuscrpit panitng reprent a rich syncretic culture as the first forms of the art is the Kshatriya style of painting, where primary subjects and motifs depict Dashavatars, and stories of Krishna and Ram. Next came the darbari or royal style, which was influenced by Mughal and Rajput art.
There is a folk art styles Puthichitro stem from tribal culture. Lastly, the fourth style, known as Tai Aahum, where influences of the art of Myanmar and Britain is evident. Buddhist influence is quite evident in this style of puthichitro.
Sujit Das, a noted artist from Assam who has also received a letter of appreciation from Prince William and Kate Middleton for his contribution to the preservation of Kshatriya painting, has long been working to revive and popularise this traditional art form. The workshop was joined by five other artists — Manoj Kumar Saikia, Kishore Kumar Mondal, Rajib Kakoti, Sourav Bora and Bhaskar Hazarika — he painted the walls of the entrance to the conference room with replicas of puthichitro.
