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The melding of Storytelling and Art - Chitrakathai Painting


Storytelling in India is an age-old practice. There are mostly two modes of storytelling oral and Visual by scroll paintings. Most of the, Indian states have scroll paintings and the nombadic tribe mainly Thakar who narrates stories with the help of scroll painting named Chitrakathai painting.
 History
 The word chitrakathi is a combination of two words chitra means painting while kathi means story. The tribes showcasing the tales with scroll painting.
There are three versions of chitrakathai leather shadow puppets, stringed wooden puppets and picture stories.now picture stories are defined as chitrakathai.
 There is an age-old tradition of chitrakathi painting wall paintings Saora, Bhil, Gond and warli are famous not only in India but also in abroad. The painting is found over Maharashtra, a few parts of Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka.
They create sheets of painting and all the sheets of the same story were kept in a handle named a pothi. These pothis consist of 30 to 50 pages in documented order. Mainly Ramayan and Mahabharata verses are famous for other local stories of bravery, God, and royals.
Few were found 300 years old. In early times the artist carries 40-50 pothis, but in recent times the number of these is reducing.
With time, the art form was fading, the king Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, who himself was an art admirer and showcase his talent to the world.
During the attacks in the temple, the art was conserved and later Maharaja revive them and honored this art form. The nomadic community who demonstrate the chitrakathai art traveled as hackers and became spies for the Maratha kings and Sawant Bhonsaled of Sawantwadi who acknowledge and honored them with land Pinguli.

Present scenario 
Few Thakar families still practice chitrakathai. They do preserve their old pothis with which they tell stories. They slowly gave up their nomadic life and settled in pinguli.
At pinguli parashuram GangaSwane a Padmashri awardee and his family who are responsible to relive this art form of storytelling. They have opened a museum, The Thakar Adiwasi Kala Aangan Museum and Art Gallery and conduct shows. 
The other renowned Chitrakathi artist are Ganpat Masge, Jayashree Patankar, Alaka Bhandiwad, Indira Seshadri, Meenakshi Madan, Rajasri Manikandan, V Shanmughapriya, Shoba Rajagopalan, S Suresh and Vaishnavi Srikanth. These are the gems who are responsible for the increasing in demand of the ancient  Chitrakathi art.

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