CHERIYAL
SCROLL PAINTINGS - ART AND CULTURE
News:
Art in performance
What's
in the news?
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Telangana has a rich history of
storytelling, interspersed with numerous performative artforms. Supporting
these performances, there are visual representations of the tales being
narrated.
Cheriyal
Scroll Paintings:
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It is a popular and modified version of Nakashi art, considered highly rich in the local
motifs.
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This art form is unique to the state of Telangana and made mostly in Hyderabad
currently.
Artists:
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The Nakashis are the artists of Telangana
and the scrolls constitute a key element of the social and cultural setting of
Telangana.
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This traditional art form is considered an
inseparable part of the profession comprising the story-telling and balladeer community called Kaki Padagollu.
Themes:
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These scrolls are painted in a narrative
format similar to a film roll or even comic strips and depict stories from
Indian mythology as well as the shorter stories related to the Puranas and Epics (Mahabharata, Ramayana,
Shiva Puranam, Markandey Puranam).
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The Cheriyal paintings represent a
distinct local invention, based mainly on local traditions.
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The ballads
and folk stories of Gauda, Madiga and other communities.
Characteristics:
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These are painted in vivid hues with
mostly primary colors, showing a
predominance of red colour in the background.
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The main narrative involves scenes from
common rural life such as women performing kitchen chores, men working in
fields or experiencing merry, festival settings, etc.
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Artists have displayed these scrolls which are also accompanied by
music and dance.
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The traditional scrolls are mostly of
vertical format and illustrate the stories through a series of horizontal
panels.
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Compared to the long scrolls in the past,
artists have adapted to paint smaller versions of these scrolls that only
depict any single episode or few characters from the traditional stories.
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One of the recent innovations is the
painting of single pictures instead of a continuous scroll for the purpose of
wall decorations.
GI
Tag:
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This painting also received the
Geographical Indication (GI) tag in the year 2007.