A Village of Painters
Aurelia Gomez
In West Bengal, India, a traditional caste community of
artists, called patuas, paint
colorful scrolls to accompany
songs which they sing to relate historic, current, religious, and cultural
events to their audiences. These
itinerant painter/singers are part of a
long lineage that has passed the tradition down for generations.
In the past, patuas traveled long
distances to perform in small villages, singing the
songs and unrolling
the scrolls panel by
panel to accompany the narrative in
exchange for food, clothing, or payment. Now, many patuas perform
in more populated areas for people
who come to them to purchase their
painted scrolls.
While their work has been recognized by museums and universities around the world, the artists
are still struggling to compete with
other popular entertainment forms
such as radio, television, and film.
Over time, the artists have created
repertoires of scrolls and songs that
continue to engage their audiences,
covering such topics as September
11th, the movie Titanic, and the
tsunami in Indonesia. Many of the
scrolls have a moral or lesson that
relates to the story.
Patua is dynamic, changing to
meet the needs and interests of their
consume everyone if something
was not done about him. At a village meeting, a wise person came up
with a plan. They built a large mirror to fool the demon. They set the
mirror up outside the demon’s cave
and when he emerged, he saw his
own reflection in the glass.
Enraged, the demon grabbed
a huge stone and hurled it at his
reflection thinking it
A traditional caste community of artists, called was another demon. The
patuas, paint colorful scrolls to accompany songs mirror shattered into
which they sing to relate historic, current, religious, hundreds of pieces. Each
fragment reflected another
and cultural events to their audiences. demon and another and
another. Everywhere
the demon looked, he found him-
self surrounded by other demons.
Finally, he killed himself in despair.
To spread the word of the demon’s
demise, patuas painted and sang the
story as they traveled from village
to village. Eventually, they received
payment and added other stories to
their repertoire that told about the
Hindu gods and goddesses including
Shiva, Ganesh, and Durga as well as
depicting historical events for enter-
tainment and edification.
audiences. The origin story of how
this tradition came to be is a
problem-solving drama that continues to have relevance today.
The History of the Patuas
Many centuries ago, a terrible
demon lived in a cave outside a village, coming outside at night to
steal villagers and eat them. The
people lived in fear, staying home
at night, unable to sleep, filled with
worry. They feared the demon would
