Singing Pictures

For generations Patua Chitrakar communities of West Bengal India have been painters and singers of stories depicted in scrolls The Patuas tell the stories of Muslim saints pirs and fakirs as well as Hindu Gods and Goddesses and offer devotion to saints at Muslim shrines In the past they used to wander from village to village receiving rice vegetables and coins for their recital They would unroll a scroll a frame at a time and sing their own compositions But competition from other media eroded this way of life and now the Patuas are trying to adapt to changing conditions