Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies Library

The Rāmāyana in Bengali folk paintings /

Bose, Mandakranta, 1938-

The Rāmāyana in Bengali folk paintings / Mandakranta Bose. - New Delhi : Niyogi Books, 2017. - 139 pages : color illustrations ; 24 cm

Includes bibliographical references (pages 131-134) and index.

The images presented in this book take us into the heart of the rich folk tradition of India. Of that heritage, the display of paintings accompanied by comments recited or sung has been a part of since very early times, as attested by references and legends in Sanskrit sources, including the Harsacarita, a 7th century work by Banabhatta. Known as patacitras or patas in short, these illustrated narratives on rectangular fabric or paper as well as on scrolls are a type of performed art that reaches out to audiences, mostly rural, conveying the artists? responses to legends and social themes of common knowledge across a wide range of audiences from varied social and cultural bases.00A particularly powerful class of such paintings that come from the Bengali-speaking region of eastern India comprise the depiction of events from the Ramayana in the form of scrolls that are unrolled as the painter displays and explicates them. The vividly colourful images presented in this book occupy a special niche in the history of Indian art, remarkable because they are not only visual objects but narrative expositions of a text that has been part of vast numbers of the Indian people and often their source of moral guidance. Especially remarkable is that these patas by Bengali folk painters diverge so often from the magisterial Ramayanas of adikavi ?First Poet? Valmiki, leave out important parts of it and import into the Rama saga episodes from local narrative caches.0.


Includes verses in Bengali (Latin) with English translations.

9789385285554 9385285556

Library of Congress -- New Delhi Overseas Office

2017325209


Vālmīki. Rāmāyaṇa --Illustrations.


Rāmāyaṇa (Vālmīki)


Miniature painting, Indic.
Miniature painting, Indic.
Folk art.
Folk art--India--West Bengal.


India--West Bengal.


Illustrated works.

ND3399.V33 / B67 2017

745.674912