Just a little more than an hour from Hyderabad lies a small village—Cheriyal— home to the famous Cheriyal scrolls used by Kaki Padagalu community to tell stories. A nomadic community, they move from one village to another, narrating stories from mythology and epics. These storytelling sessions were often a welcome break for farmers after their day-long labour in the fields. This was also another way of allowing marginalised society of the various castes listen to tales of the gods. A fine form of entertainment long before moving images and television began to rule our leisure times.
Storytellers would come stay with the artisans of Cheriyal, narrate the stories as they painted them onto the scrolls. "As they tell the stories, our brushes move automatically," says Nagilla Ganesh, a Cheriyal artist. The story tellers will then suggest colours, each colour depicting each god. Earlier the artists used a fascinating collection of natural colours derived from roots, tree barks, sea shells, earth or kerosene mud urns. Now, however, they buy the colours.
The scrolls are in fact huge rolls of khadi cloth treated with a boiled mix of tamarind, sago, chalk powder and rice starch. "With this kind of treated cloth, we can leave it open and there is no need of framing," says Nagilla Ganesh. Ganesh who still continues this art form is also teaching it so that the art doesn't die out. These scrolls are normally 50 metres in length and have an entire tale in detail and can take close to three to four months to complete one scroll. "These days, if and when we make a scroll, a museum will buy it off from us for four lakhs.,” he adds.
He adds that there was a time when it was affordable and donors would give generously, but these days donations have come down considerably. "Even we are not interested in making these scrolls," says Ganesh with regret in his voice, "because there is no profit." He makes a valid point when he says that there was a time when they were dependent on the storytelling community to buy their scrolls, but now they have a network and are not dependent on the other community.
Since scrolls are inconvenient to be kept at home, unless you are a true art collector, these days Cheriyal paintings come in convenient sizes. "There is a story behind every story and I want the middle class to be able to afford it," says Nagilla Ganesh. While the scroll tells a complete story and needs a storyteller, the single frame canvas is a painting of an excerpt of a single story. It can be a single panel or many panels with the entire story.
Nagilla Ganesh working on Cheriyal paintings | Ramchander Pentuker
Luckily Cheriyal paintings was granted Geographical Indication Status (GIS) in 2007 and the Telangana state government buys these panels as gifts to be given to visiting dignitaries. Despite such efforts, Ganesh talks of an isolation and this could be because most of these families have migrated to Hyderabad and settled down there. According to Ganesh, only eight families exist to carry on with this tradition. Dhanolokota Vaikuntam is the face of this art, with several awards and his sons Nageshwara Rao, Venkataramana and Pawan Kumar are all in Hyderabad. Nagilla Ganesh, Pasula Mallesham and Mugam Madhu are the only few left in Cheriyal, where they continue to paint tales of valour and of wars fought.
"Unfortunately, this art is at crossroads," says Ganesh. "We have no guru, or a leader. We have no society for us artists and very few people know about it. There is no encouragement even from the seniors," laments Ganesh. He started learning from 1991 and underwent training with Danalokota Chandraiah. His wife Vanaja has also learnt the art and lends a helping hand. Yamini and Ashwini, their two daughters too are learning how to paint.
"Business is good," says Ganesh, though he says the state government has to do a lot more to encourage more business. "Modern people want to encourage tradition and since this is handcrafted they buy it, but it is not enough," he adds. There are also masks and dolls inspired from folk tales are also made at Cheriyal.
"We are now breaking from tradition and also paint rural backgrounds, fishing village scenes, maybe a bullock cart, etc," says Ganesh. But the Cheriyal charm lies its story and its character.
Taruni, an NGO is now working with the artists of Cheriyal. "The project to revive these arts and develop more rural artisans was taken up in 2011," says Ailesh who works with Taruni.
Stories and story telling will never fade but maybe the theme and the method of relating it will, even as times change. But the Cheriyal painting is fighting to stay relevant.
