If you are in Puri, you are likely to enjoy the vast expanse of Bay of Bengal, visit the abode of Lord Jagannatha, and explore the exquisitely grand Sun Temple of Konark. However, there is a chance that you probably haven’t been to Raghurajpur, a unique village that has been largely off the tourist map till recent past.
What is unique about it? Try imagining an entire village as an art house, where everything – right from the exterior walls to the palm leaves from the nearby groves is an object of art.
The actual lineage of Raghurajpur is shrouded in the annals of time. Nobody, not even the villagers themselves, know when and how the actual village sprung up. The central row of the village is almost exclusively for various temples, often guarded by the Garura. This row is flanked by two lanes that separate the temple row from the row of houses. There are about 150 houses in the village, each different artists, practicing different schools and styles of painting, while staying true to the core concept of telling stories from mythology through the images.
While Pattachitra, the art of maintaining elaborate stories on dried palm leaves remains as a crucial art form here, there are as many as 9 different art forms that are practiced at the village as well as adorn and use almost every object that you can find in the surroundings – from dried coconuts to beetle nuts, daily utensils, the walls, and much more.
While the artists keep practicing their craft individually, during Dusserah, they gather around the village’s old temple to leave their marks, thus adorning the temple door with a kaleidoscope of visual signatures.
After staying in the unknown for possibly centuries, Raghurajpur has finally started to draw the attention of the outer world, including international tourists for the abundance of visual arts riches that it produces within the roofs of its humble houses. What is still largely overlooked though is the fact that Raghurajpur is also home to Gotipua dance, a form that gained national and international exposure later on with the village’s most famous persona, the late Padma Shri, Kelucharan Mohapatra.
In short, the story of Raghurajpur is a rich kaleidoscope of tradition, time, as well as visual and performance arts that continues to evolve. Next time in Puri, do visit this place for a trip like nothing else.
