Born in 1953, the diminutive, twinkle-eyed Bahar Chitrakar aka Ranjit Chitrakar is an acclaimed patachitra painter and now, the senior-most patua of Naya village. A State and District level Award winner, with some of his paintings showcased at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, he continues to be active. His great grandfather was a patachitra artist, as is his grandson. The tradition carries on.  

Bahar owes his training to no one guru – he learnt from numerous masters, both scroll painting skills and the songs. He learnt from his father, the late Khandu Chitrakar as a young boy in their home in Nankachak village. He was taught to make dyes from plants and vegetables, and later to compose songs and paint scrolls. Dire poverty compelled the family to move to Habichak, to live with Bahar’s maternal uncles, Robbani and Golap Chitrakar. Bahar learnt from his uncles as well for the next four years. He would accompany them when they went around villages in Medinipur displaying their scrolls and also helped make clay idols – anything to earn a little - and his income was meagre, to say the least. Their visits to villages would be planned according to the season. For the winter months starting from Poush (winter harvest), they would visit a particular region – where they hoped to get sufficient grains; during the pujas, they travelled a different route, for money, clothes and so on. His father died when Bahar was about 15, after which he continued his training under his paternal uncle, Gurai Chitrakar in Habichak. 

After his marriage at 18, he completed his training under the guidance of his father-in- law, the famed patua, Pulin Chitrakar of Naya village. Bahar moved to his father-in-law`s home. It was only after this that he gained courage to display his own work at village fairs.   Under the tutelage of Pulin, and empowered by his encouragement, Bahar also started working on longer scrolls. Some of the amazing patachitras he made were 24 feet long. Each of these took him six months to a year to complete. 

Bahar’s huge repertoire of songs was courtesy his father, his paternal and maternal uncles and Niranjan Chitrakar aka Tankuria of Muradpur village. All this he picked up during their travels to villages as a group. He also learnt a couple of songs from Niranjan Chitrakar of Habichak village.

 

Bahar’s talent was first spotted by the renowned folklorist Tarapada Santra in the eighties. With Mr Santra’s encouragement, Bahar made his first trip to Kolkata, with a great deal of trepidation, to display his scrolls at the former’s office. This was almost immediately followed by an invitation to visit Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi. Needless to say, Bahar returned home, flush with success, having sold all his scrolls. He promptly bought a parcel of land, on which he continues to live to this day.

He was recruited by World Wildlife Fund for several years, also during the eighties and commissioned to create scrolls about environment and conservation. Bahar travelled around the wildlife reserves in and around West Bengal – the Sundarbans for the tiger, the Palamau forests of Bihar, Jaldapara and Haatimara for rhinos and elephants and so on. Inspired by what he saw, he composed songs and scrolls. He was also taken to the turtle markets, so that he could make compositions about sea turtle conservation. 

He collaborated with noted educationist Marianne Dasgupta, on campaigns for children’s health awareness and was also a part of a group which painted on the theme of the French Revolution, a collaborative project between Crafts Council of West Bengal, under Ruby Pal Choudhury and the French Consulate, Kolkata.  

Though he was schooled only upto Class IV, at the request of some villagers, Bahar gradually started composing songs on social themes. He started by composing a song and scroll on cinema, its impact on rural audiences and so on. Encouraged by its success, he sought newer themes that were relevant to his world, including songs on Indian independence, Mujibur Rahman and more recently, Bin Laden and Corona, on the basis of information he read in the newspapers or heard on TV.  He is constantly thinking of new themes for his compositions. 

Bahar`s tryst with the Kalighat style began in the year 2000, with his introduction to some Kalighat paintings by a well-wisher. With the permission from the family of one of the last Kalighat style painters, Shirish Pal aka Shirish Chandra Chitrakar, (son of the national award winner in 1965, Rajani Chitrakar), Bahar developed his own Kalighat based style which was well received.  The V&A houses some of his Kalighat style works; his art has also been bought by numerous museums. 

With scrolls getting smaller due to lack of space in modern homes, the story being told through the frames in patachitras had become considerably abridged. To address this inconvenience, Bahar began to paint multiple smaller frames instead of a few large frames within a 2 feet scroll.

 

Bahar speaks with pride of the jou putul, the small terracotta dolls his wife Sehera would make and which were greatly appreciated by none other than the famed sculptor, Chintamoni Kar. Her dolls sold well at the fairs in Kolkata. Thus, between husband and wife, one working on scrolls and the other with clay, they brought up their sons and educated them as best as they could. Of his four sons, the elder two, Sahajan and Seramuddin are well established chitrakars today. His youngest son is an Art college student.

Bahar is pained by the fact that genuine artists are often overlooked by buyers and government alike in favour of mere sellers of patachitra paintings, posturing as the artist. This has been a very real concern for many years and is true of other folk arts as well. 

Bahar no longer paints for a living. His sons dissuade him on account of his poor health. But there is no holding back his enthusiasm. Bahar, with his toothless grin, warm voice and a twinkle in his eye, continues to paint, exhibit and conduct workshops.  He works for his own pleasure and also spends his time tutoring his grandchildren as well as assisting and advising his sons.