kalighat pat (Painting)

During the 18th and 19th centuries the function of these paintings was as a souvenir of the religious pilgrimages to Kalighat. As such, they generally depicted religious themes. Pressure from imported and Indian mass produced lithographs caused change not only in style, but also influenced the subject matter. Style developed toward fluid, energetic, simplistic line drawing without background decoration. Subject matter added caricature and satire or a moralizing idiom to the genre which already included the illustration of folk tales, proverbs, popular wisdoms and items of topical interest.

Kalighat painting originated in the late 18th or early 19th century. It is thought to have been a transformation of the scroll painting of the itinerant artist minstrels of Bengal which depicted mainly stories from the Ramayana and Krishna Lila. Kalighat painting all but died out in the 1930's.

Painting depicts Bengali yogi wrestling a tiger. In Bengal, abnormal powers were attributed to yogis and in mid 1800s some were performers in large travelling circuses. Prowess in wrestling entailed power to wrestle and subdue the tiger.

Small rectangular painting of Shiva(?) wrestling with a tiger, painted in poster paints on white pulp paper sheet. Male is painted blue, wearing light yellow tiger striped garment. He has black hair, moustache and shoes. Tiger is yellow with fine black stripes, standing upright, attacking the man. Painting was first sketched in pink outline which is visible around edges.