Pattachitra is a traditional painting of Odisha. The art form can be traced to 12th century AD and owes its origin to the Lord Jagannath temple in Puri. These paintings are based on Hindu mythology and specially inspired by Jagannath and Vaishnava sect. All colours used in the Paintings are natural and paintings are made fully old traditional way by Chitrakaras. Pattachitra style of painting is one of the oldest and most popular art forms of Odisha. The name Pattachitra has evolved from the Sanskrit words patta, meaning canvas, and chitra, meaning picture. Pattachitra is a painting done on handmade canvas (Patti) or Tassar cloth and is manifested by rich colourful application, creative motifs, and designs, and portrayal of simple themes, mostly mythological in depiction. The traditions of pattachitra paintings are more than thousand years old.
The human figures are generally presented frontally. But the face, leg are shown side-wise but the elongated eyes are drawn from the front side. Sharp nose and round chins are prominently depicted. The typical hair style, clothing, ornamentation, beard and mustaches are used for different persons, so that there will not been any confusion to recognize which figure is a king, minister sage, royal priest, common man, the God, the Goddesses and the like. A decorative border is drawn on all sides to give it a frame like look. The typical face style makes this painting different from other school of paintings.
After cutting the desired size of the canvas, a graphite pencil is mostly used for making a sketch of the Painting. Then Chitrakaar uses brushes of different thickness for making the paintings.
Pattachitra are crafted on a range of subjects and draw content from various sources. Mythological stories and characters from Ramayan, Mahabharata and the Puranas depicting the killing of Ravana, Krishna & Radha, Hanuman destroying Lanka are some popular themes. Various besha of the trinity of Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra & Subhadra, erotic and sensuous art like women in various postures are commonly found in Pattachitras. Animals and birds like lion, tiger, wolf, camel, peacock and monkey and mythological characters are also painted by the Chitrakaras.
Excellent utility products such as jewellery box, lamp shed, pen stands are developed now a days by mixing pattachtira patterns with other materials such as wood, terracotta, plywood etc. Now a days painted sarees with various themes grows with its popularity.
The major concentration of artists and the craft is in and around Puri, Raghurajpur and Danda Sahi villages near Puri and Bali Sahi, Chitrakara Sahi, Dolamandap Sahi, Markandeswar Sahi in Puri Town are the leading centers of Pattachitra. Elsewhere in Odisha, the craft can be found in Paralakhemundi in Gajapati district and other places in Ganjam district and in Western Odisha at Sonepur.