7 Dying Indian Folk Arts

India is packed with cultural beauty and impeccable heritage in every corner we explore. Every region has art that cannot be copied in the next. they evolved over centuries, in small factories and in the home of peasants who are trying to keep it alive. However, it often seems as if they are trying to keep alive a flame in a storm. Due to lack of representation and MNC influence, these folk arts are slowly moving towards extinction, never to be recovered again. Here are 7, unfortunately, dying folk arts of Indian.

Posted On November 11th, 2020

Madhubani Paintings

This painting is done with a variety of tools, including fingers, twigs, brushes, nib-pens, and matchsticks and using natural dyes and pigments. It is used in many rituals as well like birth and marriage. It comes from the Bihar region, traditionally, the painting was one of the skills that were passed down from generation to generation in the families of the Mithila Region, mainly by women.

Miniature Paintings

The tradition of Indian miniature painting can be traced from the 9th-10th century. It is popularly seen in Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts and in Jain palm leaf manuscripts. But apart from such manuscripts still there were no schools of Miniature Paintings in India.

Phad

It is a style of religious scroll painting and folk painting practised in Rajasthan. The Bhopal, the priest-singers traditionally carry the painted pads along with them and use these as the mobile temples of the folk deities, who are worshipped by the Rebari community of the region.

Kalamkari

There are two distinctive styles of Kalamkari Art in India – Srikalahasti style and the Machilipatnam style. This style flourished around temples centred around creating unique religious identities, appearing on scrolls, temple hangings, chariot banners as well as depictions of deities and scenes taken from the Hindu epics.

Tanjore

Thanjavur paintings are characterised by rich and vivid colours, simple iconic composition, glittering gold foils overlaid on delicate but extensive gesso work and inlay of glass beads and pieces or very rarely precious and semi-precious gems.Essentially it served as devotional icons, the subjects of most paintings are Hindu gods, goddesses, and saints.

Patachitra

Pattachitra or Patachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-based scroll painting, based in the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal. It is well known for its mythological narratives and bright colours.

Kalighat Paintings

In the vicinity of Kalighat Kali Temple, Kalighat, Calcutta, India, and from being items of souvenir taken by the visitors to the Kali temple, the paintings over a period of time developed as a distinct school of Indian painting.