BRUSHING UP: Artists had almost forgotten the techniques of wall painting

Tucked away in a corner of Puri district, Raghurajpur has always occupied a pre-eminent position on the cultural map of Orissa. Nestled in coconut groves, the village is best known for its patta chitras, the exquisite paintings on canvas that Orissa is so famous for. Virtually every home here is a studio and every villager an artist.

But while one art form has flourished in Orissa, another has languished. The tradition of wall paintings, the almost primitive form of artistic expression, is slowly dying. Once nurtured by princely patronage, mural painting was a popular art form during the 19th and early 20th centuries. However, with the passage of time and the absence of any royal patronage, wall painting gradually receded into the backwaters of Oriya culture as a forgotten art.

This is now poised to change. A unique project initiated by the Orissa Art Conservation Centre (OACC) is currently on in the village. The intach-managed OACC has brought together some 60 wall artists from across the state to work in the village in an effort to revive the dying art of wall painting. Every house in Raghurajpur is a riot of colour as the wall painters pick up their brushes and let loose their creative imagination. "This is the best way to ensure that the tradition is resuscitated," exults O.P. Agarwal, director-general of the intach-Indian Council of Conservation Institutes.

Rabindranath Sahu cannot agree more. After wall painting fell on bad times, he switched his profession because the traditional craft he had inherited from his forefathers no longer guaranteed a source of livelihood. "My fingers twitched and my heart ached but there was little I could do," he says. Help came from the OACC which promised Sahu a monthly stipend to pick up his brush and start painting once again. "It is after decades that I am doing a wall painting," admits Dinabandhu Mohapatra, as he takes a breather from painting a mural depicting the killing of the demon king Ravana by Rama.

As the first step towards the revival of the art form, a select band of wall painters from across Orissa have been encouraged to paint in Raghurajpur. As gods, goddesses and other mythological characters gradually take shape on the walls, Raghurajpur has become something like an art gallery. For the residents of Raghurajpur, it is a win-win situation: not only do their houses look brighter, they also stand to gain because the initiative is likely to bring more tourists to their in search of Oriya art.

The step comes just in time. Wall painting had almost died in Orissa because the traditional techniques, which are passed down the generations orally, have found few takers in the past decades. Many wall artists had almost forgotten the skills associated with the art. Neglect and decay pervaded the sites of old wall paintings in the state, some drawn over a century ago. Going by the list prepared by various government agencies, the state had no more than 10-odd sites with old wall paintings.

Only when researchers from the OACC fanned out in dogged pursuit of this forgotten art did they find another 60 sites in the state. The discovery brought little cheer, though. An analysis of the sites revealed that the paintings were decaying rapidly and were in urgent need of professional conservation efforts.

The wall paintings were not the only things at stake. In greater peril was the art form itself and the conservationists found pressing reasons to act urgently. "Wall paintings have a unique art value and letting it vanish would have meant letting Orissa's art and culture become poorer," explains Anupam Sah, the state coordinator of the OACC and the prime mover of the laudable restoration initiative. "To let these wall paintings vanish would have been criminal," says Agarwal.

One of the reasons for the decline of wall painting is that lime plaster, which is ideal as a canvas, is rarely used any more. So, besides encouraging wall artists, the conservationists are also trying to popularise the use of lime for plastering. In fact, a lime plaster mill has been set up in Raghurajpur for the purpose.

The conservationists hope that once Raghurajpur gets spruced up and the wall paintings start drawing attention, the wall painters will be invited to paint more murals, perhaps in big hotels and houses of the rich. And maybe one day this nearly forgotten art would flourish again.