Pattachitra: Manasa pata

Primarily located in the villages of Bengal’s Midnapore region, the chitrakar community or patuas have been creating exquisite narrative scrolls on handmade paper for generations. These scrolls (or patas) depict stories from various religious myths and local legends. This object, the Manasa pata, is a contemporary take on the traditional scrolls. It uses a largely monochromatic palette of browns, blacks and whites and is also smaller in size than the norm. Any traditional performance with this scroll will begin with an invocation to the snake goddess Manasa, who the singing artist will praise as the protector of the world, born on a lotus flower. Read more here.