Chitrakati- A Performing Art | Coffee Table Book
Chitrakathi is an old craft of storytelling from the villages of Konkan Maharashtra. It has been practised from 300-400 years by the families of the Thakar Tribe. They were nomads who travelled from village to village entertaining people with stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata and other Puranas. There are two families who practise this craft, the Gangawanes and Mhasages. The Gangawanes have made their cowshed into a Museum for their Lok Kalas and Chitrakathi paintings. They have set this up to promote and keep the craft alive. He and his family maintain and actively practise the craft.
Chitrakathi in the initial time was done from making the raw materials. They would make brushes from bamboo leaves (chichuka), colours from natural materials like turmeric, coal, red mud.
They would bind these colors with gum they would collect from the tree bark. The process they followed was they would put color blobs and then outline with black. Nowadays, they use materials that are available in the market. They make faint outlines first and then fill colors and finally outline with black.
We have tried giving the reader a glimpse of this craft and place through photographs. A journey narrated from the craftsman’s point of view. He gives the reader an insight of their traditional home, their culture, the other Lok Kalas and place. The craft is showed in two timelines, one of the old paintings and one of the current style of practicing. It is in a storytelling format to run parallel to the craft type.
