Travelling along the 60 km road connecting Puri to Bhubaneswar, we had the occasion to visit some typical Orissan villages. In an idyllic rural settings surrounded by coconut palms, jackfruit groves and other tropical trees, village houses are arranged in one single row facing each other along the main road and with, at one end, the village temple nearby the usual ritual water tank.
Raghurajpur |
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Visiting these rural villages gave us the occasion to admire the 'chitra' the Orissan art of wall painting. Painting subjects mostly follow the traditional allegorical, mythological themes: Dashavatara and Anantasayana scene of Vishnu are the most common.
Situated on the southern bank of river Bhargavi about 12 km from Puri on the road to Bhubaneswar the house walls of Raghurajpur, the most famous of these typical Orissan villages, are literally covered with paintings making this village looking like a living museum.
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Raghurajpur
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The village holds the unique distinction of having a community of artisans who produce different varieties of handicrafts items such as the famous 'pattachitra', paintings in brilliant colours with themes mostly taken from Krishna mythology, palm leaf engravings, papier mache toys and masks. Traditionally the pattachitras were painetd by a hereditary caste of painters called chitrakara making their artwork for devotional use for the pilgrims of Jagannatha temple. In the last few years these paintings have become very popular and the number of painters multiplied beyond the traditional craft guild.
Raghurajpur |
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Inland from Puri, among coconut palms, rice paddies, muddy lakes and rivers, there are many traditional villages, most of them Vaishnavite. During a visit to two of such a village Birapratapur and Ganga-Narayanpur we had the chance to attend to a Ramalila local festival.
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Raghurajpur
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Ramalila (the Geste of Rama) is a widespread type of popular performance performed in particular in Orissa with non professional actors during the two weeks following Rama birthday in March or April in coincidence with the spring harvest. We had the chance to watched such a performance one night in a small rural village nearby Puri. People gathered in the evening from the villages in the vicinity, in the main street of the town.The actors, normal townsmen, wore vividly painted masks with the various character of the Ramayana accompanied by the pulsating beat of drums, while the entire village was outside in the street or in the verandas of their homes creating a sense of bursting popular interest.
Ramalila |
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