Anavasara

7/21/2019 Anavasara

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Hearing the word ‘painting’ our imagination moves around galleries, museums and rich interiors with

Venetian oils on the walls, however, travelling back a few centuries things about paintings were a

different scenario. Paintings have been a part of the sophistication of living and utilitarian materials

down the ages. Art in the form of painting has a remarkable part in identifying the standard of living and

the values of utilitarian commodities.

The Indian artists have had this profession as their heirloom and have lived as communities and castes

termed as ‘chithrakars’ since ancient times. Raghurajpur near Puri in Orissa is a small village which

houses one such ‘chithrakar’ community even today. This ‘chithrakar’ village houses many families with

family names as Maharana, Mahapatra etc, and these are artists and artisans who make their livelihood

by making the traditional visual art of Orissa as their profession. These artists paint some of the finest

classical Indian visual traditions of date. The Patta chithra they make are a prominent one among

traditional Indian visual Arts.

Patta means cloth and chithra means painting. Cinnabar, orpiment, lime, lampblack and vegetable

pigments are mixed with wood apple gum and applied on canvas made of cotton rags treated with lime

and tamarind resin, using brushes made of hair collected from ears of rats these artists make remarkably

fine paintings exclusive in their style. This art tradition is honored in many ways.

Ever since time known man has been dedicating the rarest and finest of his findings and belongings to

the divine, the royal or to his memorable beloveds. In that lineage one of the finest art traditions, patta

chithra, finds its bondage with the cult of Jagannath. The painting tradition of Orissa has elaborate

treatise such as the Chithra Kala Binoda etc and literature such as Ushabhilasa, Lavanyavati etc speak

about the paintings of the place. The profusely sculpted temples and caves of Orissa do have evidences

of ancient paintings’ existence in them. But the bondage of patta chithra today with the Jagannath cult

makes us feel that the art has originated and evolved to cater to the cult alone. Such is the impact of

the relationship between the art and the cult.

The iconography of the Jagannath cult deities is unique and strange. Legends related to the cult says

that King Gajapathi lost patience due to the delay as Vishwabasu was under the making of the sculpture

and interrupted, ignoring his warning, and hence it was destined to worship the deities in the unfinished

form left by Vishwabasu. As the deities are made of wood they need annual maintenance and

conservation and restorations. This activity is composed into temple rituals and the deities are secluded

behind bamboo curtains for a period of time during which the repairs and maintenance take place. After

this the eye opening ritual takes place and consecutively the temple car festival follows in which the

deities are taken in procession after which they are reinstalled in the sanctum. Also in every twelve or

thirteen year span new image is made and replaced for the old one. The ritual of giving a new

embodiment to the divine is termed as NAVAKALEVARA, an elaborate temple festival of Puri connecting

nearby villages.

The wooden images are wrapped with cotton cloth and plastered with lime and resin and smoothened.

The painting of the image is a privileged right of the chithrakars. The colour of Jagannath is black,

Subhadhra is yellow complexioned, Balabadhra is white in colour, the wooden image of sudharshana is

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red in colour and the Rathnavedhi simhasana, the pedestal on which the deities are enthroned, bears

the golden hue forming Panchavarna in total. What could be more divine for an artist than the colours

he cherishes?

The annual maintenance ritual or the new embodiment rituals demand a span of around fifteen days

during which the deities are secluded behind bamboo curtains and prohibited for darshan. This period iscalled as the ANAVASARA. During this period, as a substitute for worship by the devotees, a set of

magnificent patta chithras of the main deities are made and hung instead of the wooden

sculptures. The Jagannath Rath Yathra festival is an elaborate one. It starts with the Snan Jatra, then

the Anavasara, followed by the Netrothsava and the Rath Yathra. The chithrakars have a very important

participation in all these rituals and festivities.

During the Snan Jatra the deities of Jagannath, Subhadra and Balabhadra are drenched in the sacred

bath from 108 pots of holy water. The annual wear and tear and Snaan demands repairs and

maintenance of the wooden images. The images are secured behind bamboo curtains and the

restoration work goes on. The painting of the Anavasara patta commences on the Jyeshta Amavasya

and is completed in about fifteen days. A guild of ten to fifteen artists under the leadership andguidance of a master artist chosen by the temple authorities engages in this service. On the auspicious

day the guild receives the cotton cloth, on which the images have to be painted, from the temple. Three

paintings of four feet width and five and a half feet height are painted. The image of Balabadhra is

painted as per iconography of Anantha Vasudeva, the image of Subhadra is painted as Bhuvaneswari

and the image of Janannath is painted in the form of Anantha Narayana. Unlike the wooden main

deities bearing a unique appearance, the Anavasara patta deities are painted as the treatises prescribe.

A smaller patta of the image of Patitapabana is also made. Once the paintings are done the temple

priests go over to the artists place and perform the invocation rituals for the images and ceremonially

bring the Anavasara pattas to the temple and hang them for worship over the bamboo blinds concealing

the wooden images under maintenance. These painted patta chithra images are only worshipped as the

main deities throughout the Anavasara period.

Even here in Tamilnadu, we do see during the renovation of temples, the bigger main deities in the

sanctum sanctorum are concealed and small painted figures of the deity is worshipped as a substitute

during that period in the temporary shrine ‘Balalayam’ made for this purpose. However in comparison

the intricacies and concentration over the details and the sophistication of classical work is remarkable

in the Anavasara patta taking us to an imaginary past where similar images might have been used in our

temples too. Speaking about temporary painted images for worship we do have some practices like the

worship of Chellayi and Kulumayi painted over palm thatches and worshipped during the annual festival

in Thiruchirappalli.

The artists employed in connection with the Jagannath temple in Puri have the duties to paint the

wooden structures and wooden sculptures adorning the Rathas, making and painting accessories

required to deck up the main deities in various ‘beshas’, etc. Apart from the Anavasara patta and the

temple related services the artists of Puri also paint the images of the divine to be bought and taken

home as memoirs by the pilgrims who visit the town throughout the year, thus making their living.

These pattas are termed as ‘yaatri patta’ and they comprise of the images of Jagannath, Subhadra and

Balabadhra in regular appearance or various ‘beshas’, the temple complex enshrining the deities,

various festivals and myths related to the temple, etc. The most intricate and detailed one of these

Yaatri pattas is the Shankanabi patta. Displaying the entire geographic layout of the pilgrim town

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resembling the form of a conch shell, the Shankanabhi patta contains the temple, town of Puri with

other centres of worship, the festivals of the temple, the sthala purana and related puranas of

Jagannath in a consolidated form. The patta chithra artists also paint the images of other gods and

goddesses, scenes from myths and epics like the Ramayana, Mahabharatha, and the

Bhaghavathapurana etc. Another most important subject painted by these artists is scenes from the

romantic love lore of Krishna and Radha sung by Jayadeva in his Gitagovinda. The profusely painted

creations of the patta chithra masters have a great appreciation and demand all around the world.

As art and paintings are entwined with rituals and practices the in the Indian context, in the fast

developing modern world, we are still able to track the past and understand the path travelled down the

ages. It is not just a practice in Puri alone that the Anavasara pattas are made and worshipped. In most

important centers in Orissa where Jagannath is worshipped this practice is prevailant. Jeypore, Koraput

and Parlekhamundi are some of the important centers where we see this in practice. Unlike the black

complexioned image of Jagannatha’s Anabasara patti in Puri, in these places Jagannatha is painted as

the Nelamadhava in blue complexion. Though the Annavasara pattas are painted by various guilds in

different centres, but for some minimum variations, we can infer that they follow a common

iconography throughout.

As the temple traditions and practices demands renovations and repainting and also as the old canvass

paintings are considered sacred and are immersed in rivers or sea on deterioration, we do not have

many age old specimens of these style for the researchers to examine and observe which results in very

minimum research material on this subject. In this context the classical orientation of the style helps us

understand and identify the antiquity of the art to an extent.

The works of these master artists vibrate in other utilitarian objects too. Ranging from murals,

decorative hangings, images of gods, scenes from myths temple objects related to the Jagannath cult

and worship to utilitarian commodities like wooden objects, dowry boxes and, not the least, earthern

bowls used by mendicants to get ceremonial alms the workmanship of the masters adds sophistication

to all. Amidst many visual traditions challenged by the printing and digital technology, the rituals and

traditions of the Jagannath cult supports the survival of the art of patta chithra. Here too the society,

the cult and the art can be seen integrated with one another as in the context of most of the Indian

traditions.

THE ANAVASARA PATTA

The image Jagannath is painted in black complexion in Puri. Jagannath as Anantha Narayana is depicted

with four hands bearing the conch and discuss on the upper hands and the mace and lotus in the lower

hands The unique feature is he is bearded.. Seven sages are painted below in worshipping gesture.

Jagannath is draped in yellow dhothi.

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Balabhadra is painted white in colour as the Anantha Vasudeva (Sankarshana). He holds the conch and

discus in the upper hands and mace and ploughshare in his lower hands. Shankarshana wears a blue

drape.

Bhuvaneshwari as Subhadra is depicted is yellow complexioned and has lotus in upper hands and the

lower hands in abhaya and varada mudras.

All the three are seated in padmasana and shown as enshrined inside a mantapa. The divinities are

adorned with various ornaments and have crown over their heads.

The colours are applied flat without any shading or modulation and are finished with confident lines.

Only primary colours are used and applied with wood apple gum as a binder.

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Anavasara