Pat Paintings from West Bengal

These are the pat paintings, also known as scroll paintings from West Bengal, presents at the crafts fair held at Surajkund in Haryana India. This annual fair is conducted by Haryana Tourism.

The craft of scroll or pat painting is hereditary and a scroll painter in West Bengal is known as patuas or patidars. The roots of pat painting can be traced back to the Buddhist and the Jain tradition.

Patas are sheets of paper sewn together and painted upon. These scrolls mostly narrate mythological and historical stories. Contemporary Patas deal with historical events, ecological disasters and commentary on social issues.

They were once painted on cloth, but are now executed on handmade paper. A Pata is divided into vertical compartments and each compartment narrates a different episode of the story. Scroll painting in West Bengal is part of an elaborate cultural performance, where they are unrolled while the story behind the pictures is narrated through songs.