The Dying Art Of Indian Heritage

India is a country with multiple diversity. The historical richness of this land makes it extraordinary. It is full of ancient architectures and various traditional art forms like painting, drawings, embroidery, carvings and many more. We are so proud to be part of such a country with its cultural diversity.

These practices are passed from one generation to another till date, are still practised in different parts of the country. But sadly, some of these art forms are going to be completely extinct if not taken any measures.

Here are some of those art forms:

• Patachitra-It’s a cloth based painting in form of a scroll. Originating from Odisha and West Bengal. These paintings contain sharp angular bold lines which depict epics of Gods and Goddesses.

• Warli – This is one of the oldest art forms in India. Originating from the Warli tribes in 2500BC of Western Ghats. It mainly uses circles, triangles and squares to draw shapes. It depicts daily activities like fishing, dancing, hunting, festivals and many more. All paintings are done on a red sheet or dark background, while the shapes are white in colour.

• Madhubani- This is one of the most popular art form practised by women. This is also known as Mithila art. Originating from Bihar. It contains geometrical patterns. It was unknown until the British discover it.Most of these paintings or wall murals depict gods, flora and fauna.

• Phad-This is mainly a regional form of scroll painting. Originating from Rajasthan. It is a 15 or 30 feet long canvas. Vegetable colours are used to express the lives and deeds of folk deities like Papuji or Devnarayan.

• The traditional art of puppetry- According to some scholar, puppetry has been in India for over 3000 years. There are so many forms of puppetry like shadow puppetry ( Kerala), kathaputli ( Rajasthan), kandhei (Odisha).

• Roghan painting-In India, now it is done only by 6 surviving people like the Khatri (Kutch, Rajasthan ). They have been practising of this art for the past seven generations. They are the last one left because the future generation can’t have so much patience to do such great art.

These are some of the art forms. There are many more such incredible and unbelievable forms. But due to art is losing its grip, artisans are moving towards alternative income method as farming or wage labour. It is a growing challenge to protect and preserve this knowledge and skills.

There are many ways through which this can be done.

i. Artisans need to understand the global market, its profit and loss. They need to participate in trade fairs.

ii. Artisans need to interact with customers to know the demands of the people. This will form a connection between art and its buyers.

iii. Craft sector can act as an alternative source of income opportunities in rural areas after agriculture.

iv. There must be workshops arranged for both rural and urban artists.

Through proper initiatives and activities, there can be more opportunities for the artisans to keep up their declining art forms. There are many sources by which they can showcase their skills and talents both Nationally and internationally.