Pattachithra painting camp at Mysore

I just came across this news piece on TOI about the spread of Odia arts in India. Its really a sad situation that no concrete efforts are being made by the Odisha government to promote the culture and arts of our rich land. Odisha has so many things to offer to the world, but except Odishi dance, nothing is known about Odisha. The following news made me happy that at least people from out of Odisha are inviting our artists to learn our arts. Here is how Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS), Mysore has taken the initiative.

A learning camp about the traditional Odisha painting style known as Pattachithra is planned by the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya (IGRMS). Artists from Odisha have been roped in to train Mysoreans on preparing various Odisha art forms. Pattachithra is a traditional art form using textile design that focuses on religious subjects like the Jagannath of Puri, Vaishnava culture and Krishna and Radha or subjects from nature like fields, farms, valleys and waterfalls. The training programme is spread over a ten day period. 

Pattachitra does not make use of regular colours. Poster colours, water colour, acrylic, crayons, charcoal and oil paints have no place here. Instead, colours in Pattachitra are prepared by traditional methods and include a range of raw materials like vegetables, stones and minerals. Pattachitra's whites, for example are made from conch shells. The shells are powdered, boiled and then filtered before they can be used. Reds come from Hingula, a mineral, a yellow stone, known locally as haritala is ground to provide yellow pigments. For blacks, pattachitra practitioners use a dye made from burnt coconut shells. Traditional Pattachithra paintings use a limited set of colours: red, yellow, indigo, black and white. 

Participants in the programme will learn to prepare different colours and learn colour-mixing techniques. They will learn how to convert normal colour into water-proof colours. After successful completion of the training, candidates will be issued a central government certification. They will also be able to take home the the paintings they create during the course of the training. "Mainly, Patachithra paintings were made on cloths. The name itself reveals the form of art. Pata means cloth, and Chithra means art in Sanskrit. Traditionally, pattachitra was a family undertaking. The men folk did the artwork and the women worked on preparing the dyes" says Nagendra from Southern Regional Centre of IGRMS. 

Odia Palm Leaf Manuscripts now available online through e-Pothi Project

Here is a great news for all those who love Odia Classical literary works from various fields or who wants to do pre-modern research related to Eastern India, especially of Odisha.The Odisha government, has now, through the state museum's homepage, made available the catalog of all those priceless palm leaf manuscripts in Odia and other languages like Sanskrit. You can order the paper version or soft copy version of the work from the http://www.odishamuseum.nic.in/ homepage. 

The unique and rare palm leaf manuscripts of Odisha will now be accessible at the click of a mouse. As many as 40,000 manuscripts in possession of the Odisha State Museum have been digitised, e-catalogued and hosted on the Web through a dedicated webpage, e-Pothi.

Embedded in the website of Odisha State Museum - odishamuseum.nic.in - some of the categories under which those can be accessed are Illustrate Manuscripts, Sanskrit Purana, Tantra, Veda, Odia Literature, Shilpasastra, Jyotisha, Grammar, Ganita, Dharmasastra, Darshan and Ayurveda.

e-Pothi, a project of the Culture Department and implemented by National Informatics Centre (NIC), will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday.

This works like an online catalogue, where a visitor can search based on author, subject or even category and get access to the manuscripts. A visitor can get access to the first and last page of an individual manuscript and if he wants to read or take copies of the manuscripts for research purpose, there is a facility for online purchase through payment. Charges will be higher for commercial use of the digitised format of manuscripts.

At the State Museum, the manuscripts have been categorised under 27 sections and showcased at the Palm Leaf Manuscripts gallery, all of which would be available online now.

Last year, a dedicated webpage on Jaydev’s Geeta Govinda manuscript was launched by the Culture Department, which was also integrated into the State Museum website. While the first 20 to 25 pages of Geeta Govinda can be downloaded free of cost, the rest would be charged.

Politicization over Odisha IIM continues

The politics over site selection of the proposed Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Odisha continues as as many as 12 locations have now come up as the possible sites for this prestigious institute. 

Few days before the government of Odisha had identified six locations as the possible sites for the institute, but even before its establishment, the IIM Odisha has already become a talking point in various circles. Politicians and academicians have been feverishly pitching for locating the elite institute in their respective areas of influence.

The state government has identified 12 locations in six districts for setting up of the proposed campus of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) announced for Odisha. The collectors of six districts - Sundargarh, Koraput, Cuttack, Khurda, Sambalpur and Ganjam, have sent two proposals each to the Odisha Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation(Idco) as ideal locations, for setting up the premier institute.

Initially, Idco, the state's land acquisition agency, had written to collectors of four districts - Cuttack, Khurda, Sambalpur and Ganjam for identifying 200 acres of litigation free land in their districts.Later, industries secretary Vishal Dev had directed the collectors of Sundargarh and Koraput for identification of land for IIM near Rourkela and Jeypore.

After receiving the proposals, the employment and technical education & training department has forwarded it to the state chief secretary G C Pati for taking a final call on identifying three suitable locations.

Though the final call to zero in on a site for IIM Odisha will be taken by the Centre's site selection committee, the state government now faces an uphill task to shortlist 2-3 locations.

In July, the Union finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced establishment of five new IIMs, including one in Odisha in the General Budget.

Following the announcement, the human resource development ministry in a letter to the Odisha government, had asked to provide free land measuring 200 acres for establishment of IIM. The ministry had set riders for selecting the land- it should be free from litigation and situated in a city that offers good rail, road and air connectivity.

IIM Odisha has already been added as a choice for candidates appearing the Common Aptitude Test (CAT) in November this year.