jarano pat (Scroll Painting)

Scrolls are work of patuas (painter singers) of Chitrakar caste, living mainly in southern districts of West Bengal. Scroll painting such as this is called 'jarano pats', a series of vertically arranged rectangles which are successively unrolled during chanting and portray important religious or secular stories. Displayed at melas (fairs) or village squares by itinerant patuas who are rewarded with food, small change, and clothing. Paintings of Midnapur District generally use black construction lines, flat blue background, and deep intense colours. Expressive distortions give emphasis to main characters. Patuas were inspired by a long tradition in this medium dating to at least Buddhist times. Work often reflects the social environment of the times. They continued with this because of patronage received until recently. Now other entertainments and education (radio, cinema) have almost replaced this traditional genre.

This scroll describes a crime committed in the Bengali District of Midnapur in 1966 and subsequent court case. This murder caught the imagination of the village. Panels describe characters and the sequence of events. The theme is heroism and ingenuity of the woman, Ninabala, as an example to all Bengali women.

A long thin painting rolled up and sewn onto a cotton cloth lashed to a piece of bamboo handle at the top while the bottom simply has a bamboo handle. When rolled, the cloth acts as cover for the scroll. Cloth has a pocket, indicating it was once a garment. Nine rectangles of Kraft paper have been stitched together sequentially and painted with scenes each arranged vertically and separated by a foliated border in light green, red, yellow, and black which also appears on the sides of the scroll. Background is painted light blue. Humans are painted in yellow. Automobiles, plants, and architectural forms are depicted. Black brush lines outline the stylized forms. From top to bottom: Four people just outside a three storey building that has a column below for the entrance floor with one person beside a tree; three people eating at a table with another woman standing outside a two storey building that has a column below for the entrance floor; four people on one side and three people on the other side of the front of a one floor building with a woman standing at the top of the entrance stairs; four cars and a lotus-like human-pulling cart on a road in between two buildings; eight people in a large blue automobile inscribed with "Calcutta"; a sequence (?) of three people driving in a car with a driver starting at the top of the road, then going around a corner, then coming to a point where there is one man waving as the car drives by while another man is waving to him from the other side of the road, then coming to a stop where they are greeted by, and participate in activities with a group of people; a car with one person inside while two others are at either sides outside next to a building; two people in a trapezoid-shaped container surrounded by twelve red, and black human-like shapes with a person at each side standing next to a column; and a column with two people on one side while three people are on the other side.