Traditional Painting: Pattachitra and Scroll Painting
Pattachitra (patta = cloth, chitra = picture) is the exam's core painting topic: process, pigments, iconography and ritual use. Scroll-format work, palm-leaf pothi and Ganjapa cards are examined alongside it.
The cloth process, in order
Cotton cloth is sized with tamarind-seed paste and chalk powder, dried, then burnished with a conch shell or smooth stone until the surface is glossy and non-absorbent. The drawing is laid in, colours flat-filled, fine outlines and details added last with a mouse-hair brush bound to a bamboo stick. Borders carry floral or geometric scrolling.
Pigments and themes
Hingula (cinnabar red), haritala (orpiment yellow), geru (red ochre), sankha (conch-shell white) and lamp-soot black are the classic palette, ground and bound with a natural gum. Themes: Jagannath and the Dashavatara, Krishna Leela, Ramayana, Bhagavata, Gita Govinda.
Ritual and format specifics
During the Anasara period, when the Puri deities are withdrawn after Debasnana Purnima, painted Anasara pati stand in for them. Palm-leaf (talapatra) work is incised with an iron stylus, then soot-and-oil rubbed in so only the cut lines darken - a monochrome, pothi-format art. Ganjapa are circular playing cards painted with Dashavatara suits.
Worked example
Question: “How does talapatra work differ from patta work?” Reasoning to write: base (dried palm leaf vs sized cloth), mark-making (incision with stylus vs brush), palette (black only vs polychrome), and format (stacked pothi leaves vs single rectangular panel). Four contrasts = full marks; one contrast = partial.
Traps
Calling the colours acrylic or poster paint; saying the base is paper; ignoring the Anasara ritual context; confusing Pattachitra with Madhubani; forgetting that outlines come after colour filling, not before.