‘He is the GandaBerunda, Lord Vishnu’s avataar’, Ramesh Vaikuntam offered when he caught me staring at this curious two headed mythical bird on a Cheriyal painting. In the Warangal District in Telangana, the Cheriyal village homes this beautiful art.
Traditionally scroll paintings, these are a story telling medium for the Kathakalus or gypsy story tellers, who troupe though villages singing & enacting ballads from epics like the Ramayana or Mahabharata.
Along with a portable stage & a musical choir that harmonizes with a tabala, harmonium & other local instruments, the Kathakalus carry with them hand painted scrolls that depict every scene they are narrating.
The entire saga is painted within little rectangles on a textured Khadi fabric, 3 feet wide & up to 60 feet in length, depending on the stories.
Each story is unique, but all scrolls start with an ode to Ganapathy, the god of wisdom, remover of all obstacles & Saraswathi, the goddess of learning.
Kathakalus commission traditional Chariyal scrolls to Chitrakaars. They give them a narrative or script that forms the storyline. Scrolls could take about a year to conceptualize & complete.
In the olden days of barter, the Chitrakaar received rice & coconuts as payments for his work. Carrying on this tradition, it is customary for the Storyteller, even today, to handover a coconut on receiving a completed painting.
While Kathakalus are the story tellers, it is the Chitrakaars who paint these stories.
D. Vaikuntam, National Award Winner of the art,is a Chitrakaar. A shy man, he silently narrates, with a few chosen words, these epics on canvas. Be it a vibrant Raas Leela, a fierce tiger hunting a galloping deer in the jungle or a demure bride in a Doli, his workmanship exudes the energy, excitement & culminating emotions, with or without the travelling orchestra.
India has the richest storytelling culture worldover. Folk stories & folk art, with their local nuances, rustic dialects & varying versions of the same story are far & few. Chitrakaars like Vaikuntamji are the last few Nakhas tribal families in the Cheriyal village keeping the scroll paintings art form alive. The Kathakalus, Mandhets or storytellers are even fewer.
Overtime, the Chitrakaars are evolving into avid storytellers too. Instead of the longer scrolls, they paint shorter stories on smaller canvases or other mediums to make them collectible works of art that appeal to an urban audience.
Storytelling has a greater purpose
The potent & charming stories of virtuous Gods, fabled animals & invincible forces of nature inspire courage, loyalty, truth, humility & much goodness in their audience. The simple audio/visual format easily communicates with an unlettered audience
Painting within the lines
Amidst the changing market dynamics, Vainkuntamji & his family try to keep the art as authentic & rooted. They use the coarse Khadi fabric, treated with the paste of tamarind seeds, tree gum & white clay. The background of the paintings still retains the time-honoured red derived from the locally available ingilikam stone. Outlines of figurines are painted with a squirrel tailed brush.
They still use natural colours. White obtained from grounded sea shells, black from lamp soot, yellow from pevidi stone, blue from indigo leaves & various vegetable dyes or ground stones for making a colour palette. Colours are mixed with thirumani tree gum, before use. (source: Rakesh Vainkuntam)
But as the demand for traditional scrolls dwindles, the paintings narrate shorter stories, sometimes from the epics & sometimes from the 7 distinct caste and communities of the Cheriyal village, namely the Madiga — the hajjam or barber, Goud — the toddy tapper, Mudiraju — the dhobi or washerman, Malas — the chamar or leather worker, Padmashali –the fisherman, Chakala — the weaver & Mangali — the farmer. Castes, with their intrinsic rituals, fascinating myths, numerous dieties & everyday life make vibrant subjects for the paintings. (source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheriyal_scroll_painting)
No matter how deep rooted & charming traditions are, a dynamic & disorganized market has it’s uncertainties. The Chitrakaars could have moved to neighbouring cities for more secure jobs & incomes, but they choose to remain faithful to their folk art.
The entire saga is painted within little rectangles on a textured Khadi fabric, 3 feet wide & up to 60 feet in length, depending on the stories.
As we try to work out a schedule to meet Vainkuntamji, we understand that it is not just creating paintings that help this art. His sons & him dedicate a large part of the year travelling the country & even abroad for exhibitions or holding workshops in for children or with artistically inclined adults. That & various other things on their itinerary makes us appreciate the fact that our folk artists don’t create their magnificent work midst peace & tranquility. They have stringent deadlines to honour & above all a keen sense of economics.
But in their art, all we see is the romantic notions they create through each brush stroke. Afterall, Art would be doing half a job if it did not dust off the every day mundane to make our lives a little more beautiful.
