Scrolls of stories


Vaikuntam Nakash is synonymous with the Cherial painting tradition.

In the early winter months, ‘kathakalu’ or bards in Telengana villages unroll ‘Nakashi Patam’ or Cherial paintings -- some more than 150 years old -- and start telling stories of yore.

The vibrant Cherial paintings form an essential prop to the oral story telling tradition of the region, being pictorial depictions of the stories, which could be anything from the Mahabharata, Siva Purana and Adi Purana to local legends and myths. Evocatively squirrel-brushed in indigo, black from lamp soot, white from seashells and red from the Ayurvedic lnglicum, the Cherial painting is an integral part of the story itself.

The fish-eyed figures seem to move sensuously across the horizontal panels of the canvas which is unrolled, bit by bit, for the pictorial narrative.

Musicians add ragas and talas while the tabla’s rhythmic beats lend a sense of heightened drama to the flickering lights on the painting, which come from the lanterns held aloft by the villagers. Since the Cherial canvas is often 60 ft long, a single story can extend to weeks or even a month.

Lone practitioner

Vaikuntam Nakash is today the lone practitioner of the 500-year-old Cherial painting tradition, just like his father was. His father chose to train his sons Vaikuntam and his brother. The genesis of the art form lay in wall paintings in temples and on ‘vahanas’ and gradually became part of the region’s oral narrative theatre.

“We make our paintings on the instruction of the story teller and the narrative sequence. Then the story teller leaves to return after a year during which time the ‘chitrakars’ would have completed the scroll. In the olden days, the chitrakar or nakash would receive articles such as rice and dried coconut, as a fee on the completion of his work. Offering of coconut still accompanies the ritual handing over of the painting to the story teller, after which it becomes his property.”...Read more

 

Source web page: The hindu


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