Bengaluru: Geetha Bhat’s love for origami and ikebana began back in the 1970s, when she travelled to Japan to study the art forms and worked with a number of Japanese masters, who came to India. In 2000, when she started working with Chittara, a socio-cultural art form found in areas like Sirsi and Sagar in the Uttara Kannada district, the situation was starkly different from her experiences with origami. Chittara, which is primarily done to mark marriage ceremonies, is a method of painting commonly done on the walls of houses. The practice has been handed down over generations and practiced mainly by the women of the household.
Marked by precise geometric patterns, symbols and done with four main colours - red, white, yellow and black, Chittara paintings are usually up to three feet in size. “The symbols are taken from their natural environment,” Geetha explained.
In 2006, after six years of working with the women of the community and learning about the art form, Geetha set up the Centre for Revival of Indigenous Arts (CFRIA), which, as the name suggests, works with artisans whose traditions, which go back several hundred years, are now on the verge of extinction. “Chittara is practiced by the older women, although the interest among the younger generations seems to be waning,” she explained.
The communities are mainly agrarian and women are accustomed to spending their days out in the fields. “They start early in the cowsheds, work in the fields and come home in the night. That’s when they paint, without electricity or anything,” said Geetha. The process includes making the dyes from materials like ground rice paste (white), roasted rice for black, gurige seeds (yellow) and red earth. The brush is made from kundi naru, a jute-like fibre. Interestingly, this has never been done for commercial purposes, as Geetha explains, this is about the women exploring their own creativity.
Little is known about how old Chittara is, according to Geetha, there are no written records. “Now, in order to revive the craft, we do encourage artisans to sell their work. We help set up exhibitions and workshops, done through collaborations with organisations like Spic Macay in the city, especially at schools.” This, she admits, is a challenge, as educational institutes don't generally prioritise studying art forms and the artists themselves are fairly suspicious of urban culture.
When she first arrived in the villages of Karnataka, she was regarded with a certain degree of animosity. “The artists had had bad experiences before, with people offering to sell their work in the city,” said Geetha. “They would take the paintings, disappear on the artists and finally make excuses saying the works had been stolen and that a an FIR had been lodged.” It took her close to three years to gain their trust. “There are a couple of women who do this commercially on their own now, but the trouble is that they don't encourage the others, they don't want the competition,” said Geetha.
Spreading awareness among potential consumers is one thing, but Geetha is dealing with a double-edged challenge. “The older women practice Chittara almost religiously, but their eyesight isn't as good as it used to be. The younger women, on the other hand, don't show much interest in learning the traditions. They would rather watch T.V.!” As it is, Chittara is mainly done to beautify their own surroundings, it is the women's only way of expressing their own emotions and creative urges. “The Hasse Gode chittara is very popular; the paintings are done on the walls of the house before a marriage ceremony is about to take place," she said. It is customary for marriages to happen inside homes and the rites are performed before the paintings.
Dealing with an urban consumer market comes with its own set of difficulties. “The art form is simply not suited to mass production,” said Geetha. “People ask us for fifty murals at a time and that can't be done.” Chittara is marked by precise geometrical measurements and is a very intricate process, she explained.
Another art form with which they work is the Manikya Mala, a floral weaving tradition that is used to adorn deities. “This happens in Nagercoil, near Tamil Nadu and is another art form that requires great precision,” said Geetha. The arli (oleander) flower, the nuchi leaf which has the peculiar distinction of never getting creased and the bulrush, used to hold it all together are the traditional materials. “The Tamil Nadu government is doing a lot to revive the art form, so we focus more on Chittara,” she said.
That apart, CFRIA also works with the artisans who make silver jewellery and weavers of all kinds. A particular woven grass mat, for instance, also made in Karnataka, keeps people cool in summer and retains warmth in winter. “None of these are sold or marketed, simply because they evolved for household use,” said Geetha.
Her journey has been fraught with difficulties, but not for an instant did she consider giving up. “Funding is hard to come by as well,” Geetha remarked. Why does she do it, then? “It's just passion,” she said. “I don't want to do anything else!”
