This engraving portrays a morbid scene depicting the shooting of Colonel John Platt of the 23 Regiment Bengal Native Infantry and Station Commander Mhow by the mutineers in 1857. Mhow in Madhya Pradesh was a critical battlefield during the Rebellion of 1857 in Central India. On July 1, 1857, the revolt reached Mhow, when numerous… Read more »
This engraving depicts scenes from the disarming of cavalry of soldiers by the British units at Berhampur in present-day West Bengal during the revolt of 1857. On the 27th of February 1857, Berhampur (now Berhampore) was one of the first places of sepoy insurrection in the British cantonments at Barrack Square, when the 19th Native… Read more »
The Kalighat area first finds its mention in the 15th century Bengali text, Manasā-Vijaya, written by poet Bipradas Pipilai. It is also mentioned in a 16th century literary work Chandimangala by Mukundaram Chakrabarti. Kalighat was also established as a pilgrimage centre after legend placed a fragment of Sati’s body here, near the Ganges and since… Read more »
This is an image of a bridge over Tolly Nullah at Kalighat in Calcutta by Samuel Bourne. Warren Hastings, the Governor General of India from 1773 – 1785, had acquired permission in 1763 to build a suspension bridge over Tolly Nullah which was to connect Kalighat to his garden house in Alipore. It was later… Read more »
The Bengal Pattachitra is a visual and oral art tradition practised by the Patuas or Chitrakars of West Bengal. They earn their livelihood by telling stories from Hindu Mythology, local folklores, Sufi tradition and contemporary themes through paintings and songs. The unfolding or playing of the Pata is called ‘Pat Khelano’, and the song through… Read more »
The Bengal Pattachitra is a visual and oral art tradition practised by the Patuas or Chitrakars of West Bengal. They earn their livelihood by telling stories from Hindu Mythology, local folklores, Sufi tradition and contemporary themes through paintings and songs. The unfolding or playing of the Pata is called ‘Pat Khelano’, and the song through… Read more »
The Bengal Pattachitra is a visual and oral art tradition practised by the Patuas or Chitrakars of West Bengal. They earn their livelihood by telling stories from Hindu Mythology, local folklores, Sufi tradition and contemporary themes through paintings and songs. The unfolding or playing of the Pata is called ‘Pat Khelano’, and the song through… Read more »
The Bengal Pattachitra is a visual and oral art tradition practised by the Patuas or Chitrakars of West Bengal. They earn their livelihood by telling stories from Hindu Mythology, local folklores, Sufi tradition and contemporary themes through paintings and songs. The unfolding or playing of the Pata is called ‘Pat Khelano’, and the song through… Read more »
Santhali Patas (scrolls) document the day-to-day life of the Santhals, a tribal community from Eastern India. These patas are also known as Chakshudan Pata or Jadu Pata, and the artists who create them are commonly called Jadu Patuas. These painted scrolls are closely linked to the tribe’s belief system and its diverse rites and rituals… Read more »
Bengal Pattachitra or Patua is a particularly absorbent, versatile, secular form of uniquely Indian art. The narratives are drawn from Hindu mythology—both mainstream, like the Ramayana, and regional, like the Manasa cult of the east Read more here. Many of the artists are descendants of Partition refugees and Islamic by faith. Uprooted from their lives… Read more »
Jamini Roy was probably the first artist to depict Christ in an Indian vocabulary. He was looking to test the effectiveness of his bold line and flat colour technique on a subject which was remote from his personal life. Being an orthodox Hindu who had never read the old or new testaments, Roy saw the… Read more »
The Bengal Pattachitra is a visual and oral art tradition practised by the Patuas or Chitrakars of West Bengal. They earn their livelihood by telling stories from Hindu Mythology, local folklores, Sufi tradition and contemporary themes through paintings and songs. The unfolding or playing of the Pata is called ‘Pat Khelano’, and the song through… Read more »
Samuel Bourne’s Himalayan expedition was an arduous one as he pursued photography and documented the untouvhed landscapes and sights in India. This photograph from the 1860s shows the giant or King fern, flora typical to this region.