A Muslim artist reciting Chandi Mangal in her soulful voice while unfurling a mythological scroll. The footage demonstrates the exquisite cultural fabric that India cultivates. A thread on the unique Chitrakar community of West Bengal (1/n)
About 130 km from Kolkata, there is a small village named ‘Naya’ that is home to 250 odd Patuas, folk artists of Bengal Chitrakars (picture makers) who specialize in the creation of painted narrative scrolls (2/n)
This is mostly a Muslim community that paints a diverse repertoire on clothes called ‘Patta’ that include Hindu mythological tales, tribal folk lores and contemporary socio-political events (3/n)
The Muslim artisans pass down the oral tradition of reciting Hindu hymns ( Manasa Mangal, Chandi Mangal, Ramayana etc) from one generation to another keeping this unique tradition alive (4/n)
Historically, the Chitrakar community was ostracized by both Muslim and Hindu societies because of their unique social identity (5/n)
Even though they are practising Muslims, they are not completely accepted, given their affinity towards Hindu image-making that contradicts Muslim doctrine (6/n)
In Bengal, Patachitra is considered to be one of the oldest forms of folkart whose ingredients entirely come from nature. Artisans extract blue colour from Aparajita or bluebellvine flower, orange colour from Marigolds & red from a certain Laxman fruit (7/n)
The lady in the video, Mamoni Chitrakar, impressed a visiting Italian lady by her singing so much, that the foreigner later helped her get her passport and visa ready (8/n)
Since then Mamoni has travelled to USA, Italy and France to demonstrate her handmade aristocratic mythological scrolls. A beautiful hamlet, lovely people, an almost-forgotten art and what a fascinating tradition they are keeping alive (9/n)
Some images of this unique art form 
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