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This Pata-Chitra – cloth painting, rendered in
vertical format on a fine piece of cloth, a blend of mercerized cotton and
silk, using primarily the blue and black and the subdued tones of yellow and
green as the subsidiary palette represents the Ten-Armed Goddess Durga Killing Mahishasura enshrining a magnificent sanctum.
Typical of Orissa Pata-Chitra tradition, in the painting most of the forms and
effects are line-drawn, the brush seems to have been used only for rendering the background against which such forms are discovered or for rendering the thicker
areas, though these could be both, the brush-work as also the densely drawn
lines. The judiciously used colors attribute to the white of the background the
status of yet another color – the one like others, and perhaps more effective
than any of them, for it is in its contrast that they all find a form, effect,
and their entire magic. The sanctum’s interior has been conceived with deep
lustrous blue, and the sky above, with as dark black. In characteristic Oriya
tradition a large number of miniaturized flower-plant motifs scattered all over
break the monotony of this deep blue interior and the tiny cloud motifs,
rendered in light blue floating in the space above, of the sky. The Oriya Pata-Chitra painters are unparalleled in creating the most delightful effects: a
kind of lyricism and rhythmic vibrancy, out of a deep background in blue or
even black, which could otherwise be monotonous, by sprinkling over it multiple
repeats of any design motif, even an irrelevant floral pattern, a dot, or
whatever. The painting’s Pata-Chitra character, typical of Orissa tradition,
reflects as powerfully in the style of its architecture, especially in the tiered temple tower, pedestal, and the sanctum’s arched opening with moderately
deep corbels, and in the beautifully painted facade.
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| Folk Art-Paata Painting-Durga Killing Mahishasura |
The ten-armed goddess is holding in her hands-on
the right side sword, trident, disc, lotus-bud, and an arrow, and in those on
the left, the snake with shield, conch, mace, bow, and in the fifth, the
demon’s hair. In an astonishing move, she gets up from over her mount lion and
while supporting her massive figure just on a single foot, set firmly on her
mount’s back, she charges upon the demon with a mighty blow of her other foot,
and another, that with her spear on his chest and the completely dismayed demon
submits to her and to his destiny. Baffled by her blows as he is, the goddess
catches hold of the demon’s hair and drag him close to her feet where her
mount lion charges at him and tears his figure, and her ferocious snake, one of
her attributes shake him with horror disabling his all mental faculties. The
goddess rises into the space pervading it in entirety and the demon,
overpowered by her blows, falls on the ground blow.
Installed in a sanctum the figure of the goddess,
obviously, the goddess Durga – the most widely worshipped female divinity and
one of the most widely worshipped deities of the Hindu pantheon, is essentially
a sanctum image. Durga’s votive images, enshrining sanctums, are mostly in
operative forms though at the same time she has a form that is all-pervasive,
the act she is represented performing being just the most insignificant aspect
of her being. She is usually represented as killing a demon, in most cases the
buffalo demon Mahisha, known in the popular tradition as Mahishasura, and
hence, the goddess, as Mahishasura-Mardini – suppressor of the demon Mahisha.
In popular sculptural/visual traditions Mahisha, meaning buffalo, is a figural
blend of human and buffalo anatomies, mostly a human head emerging from a
buffalo’s body; however, sometimes, as here in this powerful painting, he is
also represented only with human anatomy. In myths and conventions of visual
representations, it is mostly Mahishasura whose body the goddess’s lion is
alluded to as tearing for accomplishing the goddess’s crusade against evil
powers. Sword and shield are widely alluded to as being Mahishasura’s
attributes. This determines the demon’s identity as Mahishasura.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain
specializes in the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books
on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting
Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a
number of books.
