Palm Leaf Painting

Palm Leaf painting, popularly called “Patta Chitra”, is a very ancient art form. It is known in different names (Patta Chitra is how it is known in Orissa, whereas in Tamil Nadu it is called Oalichuvadi) in different parts of India. As most of us know, early way of writing manuscripts used palm leaves sewn together and scripted on them. One of the main reasons for this was the durability of the material. Palm Leaf Painting is an offshoot of this. Written communication on palm leaves in the pre-paper days were sometimes embellished with illustrations. This became an art form in itself later.

This is a very ancient art of painting with iron needle on
palm leaf and then they apply the natural vegetable ink over it.

To prepare the
palm leaf, the unripe leaves of the palm tree are first cut and semi dried. They are then buried in swamps for 4-5 days for seasoning n dried in shade. These are then stitched together with two wooden plank covers through a hole in the center.Etching is done within lines using an iron pen on leaf strips.A paste made of bean leaves, charcoal made of burnt coconut shells, til oil and turmeric is rubbed on the etching that highlights the figures.

This is the tool that’s used for engraving purpose

Note – In case people in Bangalore are interested, there is a small arts and crafts exhibition happening in Infantry road (take a left from Infantry Road towards Dispensary road, and… oh well, here’s a map . The red arrow is (somewhat) where the exhibition is. It’s a very small stretch, you can’t miss it. Its open till next sunday.

I found some good collections of this art form being sold there. Some of the pictures that we took are below.

A view of the good stuff in the stall

The artist (Vijay) who is selling  is also starting up classes during this year. I have already told him will be his student.