Art as Storyteller

Scroll Paintings of Naya Village as Mnemonics of Cultural Memory and the Changing Modes in Digital Proliferation

Abstract

Scroll painting and narrating tradition has been present in India from ancient times. The picture showman tradition consisted of displaying painted scrolls and narrating the story in the form of singing. For centuries, patachitras have dispersed mythical oral narratives in villages and towns of Bengal and have played an essential part in creating Bengal’s cultural identity. Just like other Indian knowledge systems, the narration as a part of the performance is retained in memory and passed over generations. Patachitra of Pingla had chronicled the religious as well as the political and social happenings throughout the history and thus occasioned the remembrance of cultural memories. Pingla patachitra has survived the Western cultural invasion and has been carried to future as symbolic of cultural identity through digital proliferation. In the digital age, devoid of performance, patachitras have got new meanings as standalone painting pieces, yet they function as agents of cultural memory that represents the culture itself. The paper aims at a holistic understanding of the modes of storytelling and cultural preservation by Naya village patachitra through the lens of Memory Studies.