Ramayana Story – Cheriyal Scroll Painting, Size 130 x 90 cms

Description

Ramayana Story – Cheriyal Scroll Painting, Size 130 x 90 cms

The Ramayana is one of the most significant ancient epics in world literature. It consists of nearly 24,000 verses, divided into seven kāṇḍas, the first and the seventh being later additions

The Ramayana is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and important text of Hinduism, the other being the Mahabharata

The Cheriyal Scrolls paintings are made in Hyderabad. They are made of ragi dough that is shaped into scrolls and then hand painted with vegetable colors. The scrolls depict scenes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata or other epic folk stories.

The traditional art form was inseparable from the job of the story-telling, balladeer community known as Kaki Padagollu.

The scroll would go up to 40-45 feet long. It would usually be about 3 ft wide and written in vertical format. Traditional scrolls are set horizontally, meaning it shows the story spread across the page.

These canvas scrolls made from Khadi are hand-painted in style unique to the local motifs and iconography. Characterized by a dominance of the color red in the background, these brilliantly hued paintings even received Geographical Indication Status in 2007.

Painted in panels as a narrative, these are like comic strips from the past, depicting scenes and stories from Indian mythology and epics. Distinct in their style they immediately convey age-old Indian traditions and customs in an attractive and engaging manner.