Souvenir Art: The Divine Comedy of Calcutta’s Kalighat Paintings

Kali of Kalighat, 1885 © Victoria and Albert Museum, London

A few years back, on a humid summer afternoon, I found myself climbing the 300 odd-steps to the Kamakhya Temple in Assam. Situated on a hilltop close to Guwahati, it’s one of the most important Indian Shakti pithas, which are cosmically significant locations to believers of the divine goddess or Shakti. The temple welcomes a large number of devotees, scholars and curious tourists from around the world every year. Making my tedious way up, I was struck by the number of souvenir shops lining the stairs. From the mundane terracotta diyas to overpriced ‘puja thalis’, from beautiful lotus bundles fresh from the pond to pictures of goddess Kamakhya in kitschy golden frames, they had it all!

Kamakhya isn't the only temple to fall victim of the temple-bazaar trend. All across the country, souvenir shops line the dusty streets that lead to major shrines and clever salespeople have gimmicked their way into pious patrons’ pockets for almost as long as temples have existed. One surefire way to do that was through souvenirs, which were a handy way to carry a piece of the holiness back home.

In 19^th-century Calcutta, the cottage industry of temple souvenirs gave birth to a whole new style of painting, one  that inspired artists like Jamini Roy to reimagine the very meaning of modern Indian art. Kalighat paintings are named for the temple by that name to the Goddess Kali, which had grown in prominence and become a popular tourist destination in the 1800s. In order to capitalise on the new market, patua artists from rural Bengal migrated to the big city and set up shop here.

Originally belonging to a community of itinerant bards, the patuas created long vertical scrolls (patas) that acted as props during their storytelling. Now they had to adapt to the new market of pilgrims who wanted something more portable and easy to display than scrolls. So the artists began creating pictures of single deities or episodes from mythology.

The issue of style resolved, now the artists had to scale up. Patuas developed innovative ways to keep up with rising demand by mass producing their paintings. They would make quick sketches with broad, fluid brush-strokes and maintain a repetitive quality in the themes and iconography. Kalighat paintings were meant to be dashed off quickly, cheaply and in huge quantities.