post news network, Dandasahi, April 8: A village known for its excellence in crafts and home to many national-award-winning craftsmen finds itself neglected by the authorities concerned and awaits their attention in order to continue with its traditional art form.
Dandasahi, barely 0.5 kms away from Chandanpur in Puri district, is separated from the famous Raghurajpur village only by a river. The state tourism department, however, has installed a signboard on the street of Chandanpur leading to the Dandasahi, mentioning it as a ‘craft village’.
In the first few houses in the village one can spot artists intensively working on their canvases with natural colours. The old professional painters and even those belonging to the next generation could be seen spreading their paints, brushes, etc. on their corridors creating portraits of different Hindu Gods.
However, conditions of the artists in these two villages vastly vary. Many artists in this craft village are now shifting to cultivation and other occupations, seeing a stark future in the traditional business.
There are, in spite of all hardships, many who are still in the traditional business. Most of the artists here create pattachitra paintings, which date back to 5th century BC. “Earlier there were around 200 pattachitra painters in our village, but now there are only around 100 painters. Many have shifted to other economically viable occupations and have quit our traditional art. Our village produced many great painters but many migrated to better places and flourished there,” said 48-year-old Bibhu Maharana who had been making paintings since 1970. Bibhu also flaunts a participation certificate issued by the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC in 1956. His grandfather’s paintings were exhibited there and were appreciated.
Many artists in the village, however, blame the lack of unity among the artists in the village for its present condition. “Our village is rich in talent but it never flourished like Raghurajpur due to several reasons. It is not that they (artists of Raghurajpur) are very proficient in their work. Our village artists can make better paintings than them, but the artists there are more united and in our village all live in their own sphere. The government also always preferred our neighbouring village over us and thus we never got any support to flourish,” says Niranjan Maharana, who was awarded by the erstwhile President APJ Abdul Kalam.
Vijay Kumar Mohapatra, another painter from the village said, “We are into the business of painting as it is our traditional art form and very close to our heart. We love to paint images of god. Many next generation painters too work with us and learn the art. Like us they too love to paint. I have been working on pattachitra paintings since my childhood.”
Needless to say that it is for painters like Vijay Kumar Mohapatra that Dandasahi got its tag of the craft village from the state government and continues to survive in spite of its apathy.
