Kalighat Paintings: From The Lanes Of Kolkata

When foreign tourists visit India to experience and relive its vibrant hues and happy lands, they often return with souvenirs. During the early 19th and 20th centuries, both foreign and indigenous tourists who visited the historical Kalighat Temple in Kolkata never forgot to bring with them the Kalighat paintings as mementos and souvenirs. The paintings showcased extraordinarily bright hues, bold strokes, pragmatic situations, and pious, profane, and gracious subjects and caught the visitors' attention in a flash.

From the beautiful world of Kalighat Paintings; Image Source: The Firefly Terrace

The revered temple of Kalighat brings to us some of the most sophisticated art pieces of Bengal. But the legend of Kalighat Temple is yet another exciting story to be narrated. Long ago, Lord Shiva was meditating in his heavenly abode, Mount Kailasha. But someone broke out a piece of news to him that his wife, Parvati was dead. unable to think what to do, he carried his dead wife's body on his shoulders and roamed around like a caveman, ready to destroy anything and everything that came his way. Upon seeing his condition, all the gods and goddesses were worried that his grief and anger would destroy the entirety of the earth. Thus, Lord Vishnu was summoned to take charge of this situation.

Vishnu cut Parvati's body into fifty-one pieces to relieve Shiva's burden. Her right foot's tiny toe was reported to have dropped near the Hooghly River, and the place was afterwards connected with the goddess Kali. But how did a little toe become the reason behind the emergence of such a famous temple? The place where the toe was found later became a part of the city of Kolkata. By the 1690s, it came to be known by the name of Kalikshetra or the place of Kali. By the 17th century, an early version of the Kalighat Temple was set up. By the early nineteenth century, the temple had become a popular attraction for locals, pilgrims, and curious European tourists.

From a humble city with simple beginnings, Kolkata soon developed into a bustling city, bubbling with trade and industries. Migrants from all over the country started pouring into the city to find the best of opportunities. These migrants included people from various backgrounds, including painters, artists, and artisans. Among these talented people, there was yet another group named the patuas, but they were not from another state. The patuas were an artist community that belong to Bengal itself.

They came and settled near the Kalighat forming a closely-knit artist community. They began creating paintings and other artworks to sell near the ghats to tourists as souvenirs. This was a perfect opportunity for them to showcase their talent and earn a livelihood. The traditional method used the patuas to draw historical stories on papers extending up to twenty feet. When they saw various art forms that thrived around them, they realized they needed to work as fast as possible. To achieve this, they abandoned their old style, which consisted of elaborate visual storytelling methods, and stuck to one or two figurines on the scroll. The background, filled with intricate details, was now covered with clean colors. The arrival of cheaper paints led to people drawing portraits of Hindu deities, and Islamic themes like prophets and angels also came to the forefront. The depictions influenced by existence in a colonial society featured compositions in which the expanding European dominance in Kolkata was lampooned, ills prevalent in society were highlighted, and characters of warriors backing the independence cause were shown.d mill-made paper from Britain also aided the patuas' production.

Kalighat paintings became pretty famous during this century and the use of a new variety of figures, styles, and colors enhanced how these paintings were made. Along with the transformation in the painting style, the artists resorted to readymade papers and ditched handmade papers. These readymade papers were dyed correctly, and the chief patua drew the outlines of the images that would later be filled with colors. Furthermore, the figures in the artwork were colored, but the background was not. These features were regarded as the essential aspects of Kalighat paintings. By the nineteenth century, things began to take a turn.

Since the Kalighat paintings originated from the land of Kali, artists often tried to portray her and various other female embodiments representing strength and wisdom. These different styles finally led to the division of Kalighat paintings into two separate schools- the first one was the oriental school, wherein the central theme was religion, and the second one was the occidental school, wherein the central theme was the portrayal of the society.

Things changed with the emergence of the twentieth century, and the culture of Kalighat paintings began to decline rapidly. The patuas started returning to their villages because the paintings that they made were no more profitable for them. Today, only a small number of artists practice this form of painting in Midnapore and Birbhum of West Bengal. These painters primarily focus on religious, philosophical, and modern subjects by merging current aesthetics. Ironically, today the museums of Victoria and Albert in London house the most significant number of Kalighat paintings in the world instead of India. The Kalighat paintings have attracted the interest of foreign travelers visiting India since the nineteenth century. Kalighat paintings were ideal as 'oriental' or 'exotic' gifts since they were portable and easy to explain to family members back home.

When Jamini Roy meddled with Kalighat Paintings; Image Source: Wikiwand