According to the Mahabharata, Abhimanyu, the son of Arjuna, learned war skills in his mother’s womb. Kirit Chitara, from Vasna in Ahmedabad, tells us that similarly, Chitaras too acquire the art of Mata Ni Pachedi in their mothers’ wombs as it is in their DNA.
The Chitaras are one of the few communities in India that have been passing down the secret art of Mata Ni Pachedi generation after generation for more than 400 years now. The children of the family begin their training at the age of 10 in their family workshop—a quaint room with a large table in the centre. The result is a block-printed or an exquisite hand-painted Mata Ni Pachedi dyed in natural colours, each narrating a story. Sun motifs, goddesses, animals and cattle are the most common Mata Ni Pachedi patterns.
The lore goes that when the Vaghari tribe (nomads settled on the banks of the Sabarmati river) was denied entry into temples, they started painting pictures of goddesses and their stories on a piece of cloth, not just as a form of protest, but also as a form of devotion and worship. Now, equipped with social media and several collaborations, they are going global with the art-form. Resultantly, Mata Ni Pachedi artworks have found a place in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum and the Rajkot International Airport, among others. Also called the ‘kalamkari of Gujarat’, the art is taught to those who marry into the Chitara household as well. The daughters, however, are not considered the official artists of Mata Ni Pachedi as they get married into other families, yet they can assist the other Chitaras in creating the art.
To create a Mata Ni Pachedi, cotton is soaked in water and then in myrobalan solution for a few minutes before sun-drying it. The outline of the goddess and the designs is drawn with the help of a bamboo stick and black dye. The colours are then filled inside the painting. Once they dry, the painting is washed and then boiled in water at a high temperature to ensure that it lasts. Gender roles are divided as the men go to the river to wash the cloth and draw while women make and fill colour, and boil the artwork.
In their recent family history, it was Bhulabhai Chitara who taught the art to his four sons—Chandrakant, Kiran, Vikram and Vinod. Now, their children, too, are carrying forward the legacy. While the art-form has become male-dominated, Niral (daughter of Chandrakant) is one among the Chitara women who has been carving her own identity as she plans to branch into something unique in art, which she refuses to reveal now. A social worker, she assists her father in organising workshops, coordinating his travel and interacting with foreign visitors interested in knowing about the art. She calls it a ‘storytelling art-form’. “The art is getting more support now than ever before,” she says. “There have been many upgrades.”
It was in April 2023 that Mata Ni Pachedi was given the GI Tag. The Chitaras have received several awards for their contributions. Bhulabhai was presented with the state award in 1961, the national award in 1971, and the Shilp Guru award in 2003. He is the first artist to win a national award for Mata Ni Pachedi. His sons Chandrakant and Kiran, too, won national awards in 2001 and 2005 respectively, among other accolades.
Recalling how the art was divided into two parts—hand-painted and block printed, Niral says, “Mata Ni Pachedi was largely block-printed to save time and produce more, especially during the time of Navratri when the Mata Ni Pachedi cloth was offered at the goddess’s temple. When my father entered the profession, he wanted to revive the hand-painted Mata Ni Pachedi. My dadaji (grandfather Bhulabhai) was against the idea as he thought hand-painting it would be a time-consuming process. However, my father was keen and since then, the art got divided into two parts—hand-painted and block-printed.”
The former is usually of interest to exhibitors, art collectors and museums and is sold for about Rs1 lakh per work. It takes nearly eight months and many workers whereas a block-printed one is affordable (costing between Rs8,000 and Rs10,000) and can be completed in 10 days. They are purchased by villagers and locals to offer at temples. In both cases, the length of the cloth is four metres, says Om (son of Kiran), 21. Om, who has been learning the art since he was eight years old, joined the family business after completing his 12th standard.
“Initially, children are taught the art of filling colours in characters, then they graduate to identifying the characters and their shapes and purpose,” he says. “Then they draw them and then gradually, one masters the art.” The art-works are sent to galleries and art exhibitions, and requests for commissioned pieces with modifications to the traditional drawing methods are also taken. Now, they are used to tourists frequenting their homes and workshops to observe how a Mata Ni Pachedi is created.
The Chitaras also sell block-printed cloth products, like bedsheets, saris, scarves and file covers. Traditionally, only black and red were used to colour a Mata Ni Pachedi but more colours are now included. Om says the idea is to use as many natural colours as possible. “When my father conducted workshops at the National Institute of Design, he would use natural and organic colours like henna for green, turmeric for yellow, and so on. As people wanted to see the art in more colours, gradually artisans began including them.” However, even today, a traditional block-printed Mata Ni Pachedi which is offered to the goddess is only painted in red and black.
Such indigenous arts are finding a place in pop culture, thanks to the government’s support and an increased interest among the youth. “PM Modi’s ‘vocal for local’ has really helped art-forms like ours,” says Kirit, a nephew of the Chitara brothers. “My paintings were gifted to delegates at the G20 summit. There is also a high demand for corporate gifting. We get orders from Pakistan and from Nepal’s Gujarati community, too.”
To spread awareness about their art-form, the Chitaras have been conducting workshops and exhibitions worldwide. This is where two worlds collide as art meets tech. The team at Rooftop, an online platform for traditional Indian art courses, came across the Chitaras while researching traditional Indian art-forms to add to their database and expand their network of indigenous artisans. Today, the platform has 20 indigenous art-forms, 18 courses, and has published eight books on indigenous arts.
Kartik Gaggar, CEO and founder of Rooftop, says the seed of the idea was born when he travelled to Singapore as a college student. “I realised they were very proud of their culture and marketed it well. I wondered why this was not happening in India with our rich culture and heritage.” A chartered accountant, the idea of spreading his culture gripped Gaggar, and along with his wife, he ventured into the travel experiences sector. Rajasthan was their first choice as the culture-rich state is hospitable and rich in indigenous art-forms waiting to be discovered. They started with Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur and later, Bikaner was included. As for the artists’ remuneration, they only cut commission for travel experiences and give the artists a royalty fee for courses. The videos on their website on different art-forms are free and multilingual.
Talking about the revival of lost and indigenous art-forms, Gaggar says that the millennials and Gen-Z today want to explore Indian art and history. “They don’t just want to consume the product, but want to connect with artisans,” he says. They won’t just buy a painting, but are interested in knowing about the process, the life of the artist, and what they go through.” This is the gap he wanted to bridge with his platform, while also building a business to sustain these art forms.
Rajasthan Studio, a subsidiary brand of Rooftop, helps travellers connect with artisans in parts of Rajasthan, where they offer 57 master workshops in pottery, puppetry, miniature paintings, jutti-making, fresco and pichwai (a traditional style of Hindu painting). An art-wiki on the artists was created, through which engaging content about them and their art was shared.
It takes about five months to onboard new art-forms on their platform, says Gaggar, and currently, they are working on the art-forms of the south and northeast. “Our research team gathers data from the internet and the government database, makes notes, reaches out to artists and their families, and shares what we are doing. Then we go and connect with them,” he says. Creative learning, he feels, will be an important asset in the next decade.