Arts and Crafts of Orissa | Tour to Orissa

Orissa, one of the centers of rich art manifestations, attracts several tourists, devotees, archaeologists and researchers from various parts of the country. Having grown to be one of the most favored destinations of many travelers far and wide, the rich assortment of Arts and Crafts of Orissa is on offer.

Among the Arts and Crafts of Orissa, Patachitra demands foremost mention due to it uniqueness. Having its origin in the temple of Jagannath, the art form of Patachitra involves painting on a piece of cloth or clay plate or a tablet. The painting generally illustrates either tales of Gods and Goddesses, lilas of Lord Krishna, images of animals and legends. The artists are called chitrakars and they use colors like lamp black, blood red, red ocher, indigo, yellow and white to paint the patas. These patachitras are a must in the shopping lists of the tourists.

The ancient usage of palm leaf writing has been a famous form of art in Orissa. Religious manuals, horoscope scrolls, invitation cards, New Year cards are mostly created in palm leaves.

Appliqué is another form of Arts and Crafts in Orissa. This is most popular in Pipli and pieces of cloth are artistically stitched on to a larger piece of fabric to bring a nice and colorful effect. Saris and wall hangings mostly display this form of art.

Carving and metalwork are other forms of Arts and Crafts in Orissa which are exclusive in nature. The former is created with the help of soft soapstone and hard kochila and the latter is brought to shape with brass and other metals.

The papier-mâché form of art in Orissa is beautiful as it involves creation of different forms and figure, toys and showpieces made out of paper.

Arts and Crafts of Orissa also involve some of the performing arts like,