Paradise of Creativity
Raghurajpur is a village about 14 kms outside of Puri and is home to about a hundred odd families involved in various forms of art. The village itself is a cluster of semi permanent structures, with murals of the presiding deity of Orissa, Jagannath and beautiful scenes from daily life painted on the walls. Over time the small village has received attention from the Orissa government as well as some amount of International acclaim and funding, and is now a ‘heritage’ village. This means that a village which practiced and created age old art forms for their own consumption, has now grown into a loose commercial enterprise with each home a workshop. However, while the village is now in the business of producing art for exhibitions around the country and every home is a shop for the curious, the old art of palm leaf paintings or Patachitra has not been lost.
Today the villagers work with the government and local organizations to showcase their skills at exhibitions around the country, creating awareness of the old craft of palm leaf painting, which dates back to 5 BC. The village is also the home of Kelucharan Mohapatra, the famed Odissi dancer and poet, and his house stands for the curious to see.
The Man of Acrtion
Kirtan Das is not a man of words he is a man of action. His small home, dimly lit by a single naked bulb, was cluttered with rolls of canvas, painting materials and shelves full of curios. He uses canvas to created using old cotton saris, stuck together with natural glue over a period of 2-3 days. The canvas is then smoothened over with chalk, making the canvas thick, supple and white. He patiently demonstrated the colours from bright yellows and blues to deep reds and blacks were made out of natural stone, plant extracts, mineral deposits and soot, transforming the white canvas into stunning images.
Kirtan Das, certainly holds the pride of place in our home amongst other pieces of art and history we have found along the way.
Some Useful Information
Raghurajpur is located 14 Kms outside of Puri & 50 Kms from Bhubaneswar. From Puri you can hire a local autorickshaw to take you and bring you back but from Bhubaneswar you will probably need to hire an car. Since there are no hotels in Raghurajpur this place is best done as a day trip.
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