Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya is organising the next chapter of its popular series, Curatorial Talk Show on Tuesday, September 22, 2015. In this Curatorial Talk, Assistant Keeper of Manav Sangrahalaya, Dr Sudipa Roy will speak on ‘Patachitra: A Traditional Narrative Scroll Painting of West Bengal’. Narrative scroll painting, a form of folk art comes from the eastern part of India mainly from the state of West Bengal. The Bengali scroll tradition is an ancient one, featuring single image paintings or long vertical multi paneled scrolls known as 'patas' (paintings) or jorana patas' (scroll paintings) respectively. In Bengali, "Pat" means "cloth" and "Chitra" means "Painting". It was also an important device through which both oral and written epics are narrated. A palm (painter) goes from village to village, carrying these scrolls from door to door, and depending on people's request, particular stories would be narrated for a small fee, either in cash or kind. The Patua is a kind of minstrel, religious preachers who employ these paintings as means to propagate their religion that is neither Hindu nor Muslim, a perfect balance between the two religions. Patachitra is the only visual art that talks about the continuity.
Dr. Sudipa Roy, an alumnus of prestigious Calcutta University and Dr. Hari Singh Gaur University holds a degree in science from CU and her master’s & Ph.D. from Dr. Hari Singh Gaur University, Sagar. Dr Roy not only has collected hundreds of ethnographic specimens, she also holds rare talent to care and maintain museum objects. Her research papers have been published in various journals like Madhya Bharti Journal, Journal of Indian Anthropological Society and South Asian Anthropologist. She also holds the honour for being part of Leadership Training Programme (LTP)-III for museum professionals at the British Museum, London, UK.

Date: September 21, 2015