Transcript
Interviewer: How long has the patua community been living here?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Actually… you see… I am thirty-eight years old now. Since my childhood I have been witnessing the practice of patachitra here. I had heard from my father that it has been practiced for the last 100-150 years. I started painting patachitras at the age of seven. I used to assist my father and have learnt painting as well as the pata songs from him. Earlier, our financial condition was not that stable. My father primarily used to make clay idols. From that, he shifted to patachitra. He would wander about villages with his patas and the money, rice that he earned would help meet our needs. We were very young then. He tried hard to educate us but was unable to do so. I continued my studies till standard IV and after that became a helping hand to my father.
Interviewer: So, were you born here (Naya, Pingla)?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Yes. I was born here.
Interviewer: Who was the first patua to settle down here?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: I had heard it from my father that even my grandfather was already settled here. The name of my grandfather is Kartik Chitrakar. My father’s name is Amar Chitrakar. They were both involved in idol-making. My father told me about the elder patuas who had been living here for a long time. Many of them are still around. For instance, Dukhushyam Chitrakar, Hemanta Chitrakar. These patuas are pretty old. Even before my grandfather’s time, there was a patua called Pulin Chauli. He has passed away. He, too, was a very senior patua and I have heard that they were amongst the first patuas to have settled down here.
Interviewer: So, you have learnt patachitra from your predecessors.
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Yes. This is something that has been passed down the generations . My grandfather was a patua. So was my father. Now, I am practising it. Hopefully, my children would also carry forward the tradition.
Interviewer: You mentioned that there was a time when you and your family had to battle abject poverty. At that point of time, did you take up any other profession?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: As a child, I used to accompany my father and would visit villages singing pata songs. That would fetch us some money or a handful of rice. I realised soon that the demand for patachitra had diminished and the little that we earned was not enough to make our ends meet. That is when my elder brother started working as a tailor. We earned too little by displaying patachitra and we had to feed five to seven people back home. It was getting immensely difficult for us. So, I decided to join my brother. I started working as a tailor too. I continued doing that for almost fifteen-twenty years. I learnt stitching and all and then started working as a tailor. But then I realised that after Banglanatak.om came, the scenario started changing. They brought our works to light, held fairs. Also, the market value of patachitra improved significantly. That is when I decided to get back to patachitra. Apart from the Medinipur style of patachitra, I also follow the Kalighat style. The patachitra that I am painting now is also based on the Kalighat style. This is both my passion and profession.
Interviewer: When you were young, how many families were involved in patachitra? Has there been any change since then? Has the number increased or decreased? What is the scenario now?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: When I started working on patachitra, there were barely twenty to thirty people associated with this. Or perhaps, a little more. Now the number has increased manifold. Instead of thirty, almost three-hundred people are practicing this now. This is all because of the huge demand for patachitras these days.
Interviewer: Which one do you think has a better market value – patachitras based on mythologies or the ones based on contemporary social events?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Both mythological and contemporary. The mythological ones have always existed. The market demand for contemporary governmental policies like Kanyashree, Rupashree is also pretty high. In fact, the government pays us a monthly stipend of one thousand rupees for promoting these policies through patachitra.
Interviewer: Okay. So you are receiving a stipend from the government for promoting social awareness about certain social issues?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Yes, we do.
Interviewer: Coming to pata songs, especially the mythological ones, has there been any revision in the lyrics or even in the tune of the songs you have learnt from your forefathers.
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Whatever I learnt from my father – the lyrics, the song, I have tried keeping that intact. But, initially when there were thirty patuas, there were obviously thirty different versions of the same song. The tunes were different. So were the lyrics. Now there are almost three hundred patuas. So, if we divide them further we’ll have further sub-groups, further variations. As a result we’ll have many versions of the same story.
Interviewer: So… right from the beginning the lyrics and the tune were all different.
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Right. They have always been different. For instance, in this patachitra, I have been following the Kalighat style of painting. This is a painting on the Babu Bibi theme. Several others might adopt the same theme, but the style of individual artists would all be different. The same thing, therefore, would give rise to various versions. This is the basic difference.
Interviewer: When you paint a pata, do you compose songs alongside?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Yes. We both paint and compose songs.
Interviewer: Okay. Earlier, patuas used to visit villages and display their patachitras. But now, according to the demands of the market, these features of patachitra are evolving as well.
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Yes. Things have undergone drastic changes. For example, patuas nowadays don’t wander about villages anymore displaying their patas. There was a time when several patuas had abandoned this profession and had taken up other professions. They had become rickshaw-pullers. But they made a comeback and started painting patas again. This is because of the sudden escalation in the market value of patachitra. They have also realised that this has been our traditional calling. Everything depends on this and it is through this medium that we have been able to come this far.
I did not even own this house. I mean, it was a much smaller, simpler hut earlier. It is only because of patachitra that today I have been able to build a better house. This is the truth.
Interviewer: What exactly are the styles and themes that are in demand? I mean, you have customers who would ask you to draw on customized small sheets. Again, you have customers from abroad as well. So do you feel that this has somehow played a huge role in shaping the genre itself? Do you think that the patachitra that you had inherited from your forefathers is very different from the one that you have now?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Of course. We are changing things a bit. Let us take the example of the patachitra that I am working on right now. You will find the play of light and shade in this. But initially, the techniques of light and shade were used only for the Kalighat painting style. We used to draw the outlines and then fill in with colours. Compared to the latter technique, the former is far more time consuming. But such patachitra where we get to see the interplay of light and shade have a higher market value. Also, the work seems very minute and neat. So, this is a change that I have brought in.
Interviewer: Do you believe that your next generation would continue with the tradition of patachitra?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: I’m pretty worried about that. I often ruminate on this issue. My kids have grown up seeing me do something like this. They have witnessed the immense change, the financial stability that patachitra has helped bring into our lives. They know how much our lives have evolved. I don’t know what the future holds, but I firmly believe that they will keep this tradition alive. I am also trying to teach them.
Interviewer: Now after having spoken to a few patuas, what I understand is that religion played an extremely vital role. Despite the fact that the patuas belong to one particular religious sect, they paint the images of deities of another religious community. As a result, they have had to face several problems. Either they have been frowned upon by their own community members, or they have had to use two different names, maintain two different identities. Have you personally faced any such thing?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: No, till now I haven’t faced anything of this sort. My name, for instance, is Sanuyar Chitrakar. Sanuyar is a Muslim name. I don’t have any other name.
I use this name no matter where I go. I also work in puja pandals. I get involved with the puja committee. For those few days of the puja, we put up together. But I haven’t faced any discrimination yet. Even the villagers in and around have never discriminated against us. We paint images of Hindu deities. But simultaneously, we also maintain our Muslim faith. We celebrate occasions like Eid. We keep fast during roja.
Interviewer: The songs and the themes of the mythological patachitras have been passed down from your forefathers. The patas based on contemporary social events also have certain common topics. Different patuas, however, create their unique versions. Is there any pata which might have been your brainchild? But is there any pata, which you can claim to be completely yours?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: No, I cannot perhaps claim this. One of the major reasons behind this is my age. I am too young for this. When my elder brothers compose a song, I just chip in. This is how the scenario has been so far.
Well… if you ask me about my own creation, I would like to share an incident. I was painting patachitras in certain portion of the Bombay (Mumbai) airport. There were three other people along with me. The four of us composed a song on rural Bengal. It narrated the journey from the countryside to Kolkata. It also depicted some iconic things like the Victoria Memorial, the tram, the buggy. So that was a song that we four had composed all by ourselves.
Interviewer: Could you please shed some light on the origins of patachitra?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Patachitra is mainly about our epics, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. From what I have heard from my father, the origins of patachitra can be traced back to idol-making. There was a time when idol-making fetched very little money. A Durga idol would fetch only fifty to hundred rupees. That obviously wasn’t enough to run a family. That is how the idea of creating a pata came. They felt that if the same story of goddess Durga could be narrated in a different medium, they could roam about villages with the scroll. An idol can be exhibited only once a year. On the contrary, the same scroll can be showcased for an entire week or so, and which could obviously open up better opportunities for earning. This is how it all began. This is what I have heard from my father.
Interviewer: Thank you so much.
The patas that you are creating are a bit different from the mythological ones. So do you have songs accompanying these?
Sanuyar: No, they have stories accompanying them. For instance, we have the story of Babu-Bibi. These revolved around zamindars, smoking hookah, cats and dogs intoxicated by these zamindars. I’m also composing a few on my own.
This is a new composition, for example. A woman is getting married. As per the ritual, she is being smeared with turmeric. These are all new topics that I have thought of. This one is on clicking selfies.
This depicts a poor man, who instead of investing on his children’s education, wastes away his meagre earnings on liquor.
Interviewer: Have you composed any song to go along with these patachitras?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: The small patas usually don’t have songs.
Interviewer: These paintings are all based on the Kalighat style, as we can see. But then, there’s a distinct style of painting here in Naya. So have you amalgamated both or have you completely switched over to the Kalighat style of patachitra.
Sanuyar Chitrakar: No, I have completely started following the Kalighat style. Even if I do a 30 feet scroll, I’ll use the light and shade of this style. This is because the interplay of light and shade makes it appear very detailed, neat, and therefore, more appealing. This is what I feel. I had made a scroll for Biswa Bangla. It was 30 feet long and 4 feet wide. That was the only scroll that I had made. It took me a year to finish that scroll. They have bought that scroll.
Interviewer: Do you think that the patuas from Naya, Pingla are somehow related to those from Purba Medinipur?
Sanuyar: Yes, they are somehow all related. My father had a distant cousin from Purba Medinipur. My cousin got married to someone from a patua family there. Another cousin also got married likewise. Nuruddin Chitrakar from Purba Medinipur is the son-in-law of our family. My niece has been married off to a patua from that region. Even my sister-in-law is from Purba Medinipur. This is how we are all related.
Interviewer: Which one is older? The patachitra style from Purba Medinipur or the one at Naya, Pingla?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: Ours is older.
Interviewer: Okay. So this one seems to be older. Have people from here migrated to Purba Medinipur, then?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: You see we had one undivided Medinipur back then. Some patuas lived in Thekuachawk. Some stayed near the college here. There were very few people living in this place. Some people migrated from Purba Medinipur to Naya. Again, some people from Naya moved to Thekuachawk, Chandipur. This is how patuas dispersed. There are patuas even at Ghatal.
Interviewer: You said that patuas primarily work on mythological stories. So, which one interests you more – the mythological stories or social contemporary issues?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: I am interested in both. I work on both these topics. However, I am slightly more inclined towards the mythological stories. There are still so many stories that I don’t know and that fascinates me. I have an overwhelming thirst for all these stories, which I can then put across using my patachitra narrative. The contemporary ones are all so apparent. It’s visible. I can see that. But mythological stories are hidden. They have to be unearthed.
Interviewer: So, if you get to know of a new story now, you’ll incorporate that into the stories that have been passed down by your forefathers. Right?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: True.
Interviewer: Coming to market value, which kind of patas fetch you more customers?
Sanuyar Chitrakar: The ones on social contemporary issues get prioritized over the mythological ones, especially because these small square sizes are very handy. The long mythological scrolls are usually only bought by people from abroad, or perhaps curated by museums. Space is also an issue. Someone with a small house like mine won’t buy a long scroll. For them, these small patas are convenient. While painting these square ones, I cannot include the entire narrative of the Mahabharata. I can only depict one scene. But it’s very difficult to explain with just one scene that I’m trying to narrate a story from the Mahabharata. But a square pata is fine for depicting social issues.