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Alpana On Saraswati Puja1
or alpona ( bn, আলপনা ) is a South Asian folk art style, traditionally practiced by women, and consisting of colored motifs, patterns, and symbols that are painted on floors and walls with paints made from rice flour, on religious occasions. It is common to the Bengal region in India, and in Bangladesh. Amongst Hindu families, alpanas may contain religious motifs with symbolic designs that relate to religious austerity, festivals, and specific deities. Amongst ''Santal'' tribal communities, ''alpanas'' often contain geometric or symbolic patterns drawn from nature. Although traditionally the domain of rural women'', Alpana'' motifs have been very influential in modern Indian art, and are incorporated into the works of artists such as Jamini Roy, Abanindranath Tagore, Devi Prasad, and in the early illustrations of film-maker Satyajit Ray. In contemporary Bengal, ''alpanas'' are created as part of religious festivals such as the Durga puja, in public and private spaces. ...
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Folk Art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art are typically trained within a popular tradition, rather than in the fine art tradition of the culture. There is often overlap, or contested ground with naive art, 'naive art'. "Folk art" is not used in regard to traditional societies where ethnographic art continue to be made. The types of objects covered by the term "folk art" vary. The art form is categorised as "divergent... of cultural production ... comprehended by its usage in Europe, where the term originated, and in the United States, where it developed for the most part along very different lines." For a European perspective, Edward Lucie-Smith described it as "Unsophisticated art, both fine and applied, which is supposedly rooted in the collective awareness of simple people. ...
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Santal People
The Santal or Santhal are an Austroasiatic speaking Munda ethnic group in South Asia. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal state of India in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar and Assam. They are the largest ethnic minority in northern Bangladesh's Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. They have a sizeable population in Nepal. The Santals speak Santali, the most widely spoken Munda languages of Austro-asiatic language family. Etymology Santal is most likely derived from an exonym. The term refers to inhabitants of in erstwhile Silda in Medinapore region in West Bengal. The sanskrit word ''Samant'' or Bengali ''Saont'' means plain land. Their ethnonym is ("sons of mankind"). History Origins According to linguist Paul Sidwell, Austro-Asiatic language speakers probably arrived on coast of Odisha from Indochina about 4,000–3,500 years ago. The Austroasiatic speakers spread from Southeast Asia and mixed exte ...
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Culture Of West Bengal
The culture of West Bengal is an Indian culture which has its roots in Bengali literature, music, fine arts, drama and cinema. Different geographic regions of West Bengal have subtle as well as more pronounced variations between each other, with Darjeeling Himalayan hill region and Duars showing particularly different socio-cultural aspects. West Bengal's capital Kolkata—as the former capital of India—was the birthplace of modern Indian literary and artistic thought, and is referred to as the "cultural r literarycapital of India". The presence of ''paras'', which are cluster of neighbourhoods that possess a strong sense of community, is characteristic of West Bengal. Typically, each ''para'' has its own community club and, on occasion, a playing field. Residents engage in '' addas'', or leisurely chats, that often take the form of freestyle intellectual conversation. However, with the growth of apartments, expansion of neighbourhoods and rapid urbanization, this culture i ...
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Bengali Hindus
Bengali Hindus ( bn, বাঙ্গালী হিন্দু/বাঙালি হিন্দু, translit=Bāṅgālī Hindu/Bāṅāli Hindu) are an ethnoreligious population who make up the majority in the Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Jharkhand, and Assam's Barak Valley region. In Bangladesh, they form the largest minority. They are adherents of Hinduism and are native to the Bengal region in the eastern part of the Indian subcontinent. Comprising about one-thirds of the global Bengali population, they are the second-largest ethnic group among Hindus after Hindustani Hindus. Bengali Hindus speak Bengali, which belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family and adhere to Shaktism (majority, the Kalikula tradition) or Vaishnavism (minority, Gaudiya Vaishnavism and Vaishnava-Sahajiya) of their native religion Hinduism with some regional deities. There are significant numbers of Bengali-speaking Hindus in different Indian states. Aro ...
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Hindu Art
Hindu art encompasses the artistic traditions and styles culturally connected to Hinduism and have a long history of religious association with Hindu scriptures, rituals and worship. Background Hinduism, with its 1.2 billion followers, makes up about 15-16 % of the world's population and as such the culture that ensues it is full of different aspects of life that are effected by art. There are 64 traditional arts that are followed that start with the classics of music and range all the way to the application and adornment of jewellery. Since religion and culture are inseparable with Hinduism recurring symbols such as the gods and their reincarnations, the lotus flower, extra limbs, and even the traditional arts make their appearances in many sculptures, paintings, music, and dance. History Earliest depictions of Hindu deities (3rd-2nd centuries BCE) It is thought that before the adoption of stone sculpture, there was an older tradition of using clay or wood to represen ...
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Indian Painting
Indian painting has a very long tradition and history in Indian art, though because of the climatic conditions very few early examples survive.Blurton, 193 The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of prehistoric times, such as the petroglyphs found in places like Bhimbetka rock shelters. Some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 10,000 years old. India's ancient Hindu and Buddhist literature has many mentions of palaces and other buildings decorated with paintings ('' chitra''), but the paintings of the Ajanta Caves are the most significant of the few ones which survive. Smaller scale painting in manuscripts was probably also practised in this period, though the earliest survivals are from the medieval period. A new style emerged in the Mughal era as a fusion of the Persian miniature with older Indian traditions, and from the 17th century its style was diffused across Indian princely courts of all religions, each ...
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Chowk Poorana
Chowk-poorana or Chowkpurana is folk art practised in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and parts of Uttar Pradesh. In Uttar Pradesh, the term chowk-poorana refers to decorating the floor with various designs using flour and rice and also the walls using designs specific to the region. Similarly, according to K.C. Aryan, the term chowk-poorana in Punjab refers to floor art and mud wall painting. This art is primarily practised by women and is a folk tradition. In Punjab, during festivals such as Holi, Karva Chauth and Diwali, walls and courtyards of rural houses are enhanced with drawings and paintings similar to rangoli in South India, '' mandana'' in Rajasthan, and rural arts in other parts of India. Chowk-poorana mud wall art in Punjab is given shape by the peasant women of the state. In courtyards, this art is drawn using a piece cloth. The art includes drawing tree motifs, flowers, ferns, creepers, plants, peacocks, palanquins, geometric patterns along with ...
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Kolam
Kolam (,, ), also known as Muggu () or Tharai Aalangaram () Rangoli () is a form of traditional decorative art that is drawn by using rice flour as per age-old conventions. It is also drawn using white stone powder, chalk or chalk powder, often along with natural or synthetic color powders. Its origin belongs to the ancient Tamil Nadu known as Tamilakam and has since spread to the other southern Indian states of Karnataka, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, and Kerala. It can be found in some parts of Goa and Maharashtra. Since the Tamil diaspora is worldwide, the practice of kolam is found around the world, including in Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and a few other Asian countries. A kolam or muggu is a geometrical line drawing composed of straight lines, curves and loops, drawn around a grid pattern of dots. It is widely practised by female family members in front of their house entrance .Although,Men and boys too practice this tradition. The similar regional vers ...
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Rangoli
Rangoli is an art form that originates from in the Indian subcontinent, in which patterns are created on the floor or a tabletop using materials such as powdered lime stone, red ochre, dry rice flour, coloured sand, quartz powder, flower petals, and coloured rocks. It is an everyday practice in many Hindu households, however the colours are preferred during festivals and other important celebrations as it is time consuming. Rangolis are usually made during Diwali or Tihar, Onam, Pongal, and other Hindu festivals in the Indian subcontinent, and are most often made during Diwali. Designs are passed from one generation to the next, keeping both the art form and the tradition alive. Rangoli have different names based on the state and culture. Rangoli hold a significant role in the everyday life of a Hindu household especially historically when the flooring of houses were untiled. They are usually made outside the threshold of the main entrance, in the early mornings after cleaning ...
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Nandalal Bose
Nandalal Bose (3 December 1882 – 16 April 1966) was one of the pioneers of modern Indian art and a key figure of Contextual Modernism. A pupil of Abanindranath Tagore, Bose was known for his "Indian style" of painting. He became the principal of Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan in 1921. He was influenced by the Tagore family and the murals of Ajanta; his classic works include paintings of scenes from Indian mythologies, women, and village life. Today, many critics consider his paintings among India's most important modern paintings. In 1976, the Archaeological Survey of India, Department of Culture, Govt. of India declared his works among the "nine artists" whose work, "not being antiquities", were to be henceforth considered "to be art treasures, having regard to their artistic and aesthetic value". He was given the work of illustrating the constitution of India. Early life Nandalal Bose was born on 3 December 1882 in a middle-class Bengali family at Haveli Kharagpur, in Munge ...
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Jamuna Sen
Jamuna Sen (née Bose) (Bengali: যমুনা সেন) (7 October 1912- 10 February 2001) was an Indian artist, known for her design work in a variety of mediums including Batik and Alpona as well as developing, in an Indian context, a variety of traditional crafts from across the world. She was a pioneer in establishing the practice of Batik (wax resist dying) in India in modern times. Daughter of Nandalal Bose, a central figure in modern Indian art, she was brought up in the artistic and intellectual milieu of Santiniketan and made significant contributions in the field of design. Early life Jamuna Sen was born in Haveli Kharagpur in Munger District of Bihar in 1912, the third child of Nandalal Bose and Sudhira Devi. Her father Nandalal Bose was a key figure in developing a modernist art movement in India. Indeed, she grew up in a family of artists: her elder siblings Gouri Bhanja (née Bose) and Biswarup Bose were both artists. The former developed and perfected the Al ...
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Visva-Bharati University
Visva-Bharati () is a public central university and an Institution of National Importance located in Shantiniketan, West Bengal, India. It was founded by Rabindranath Tagore who called it ''Visva-Bharati'', which means the communion of the world with India. Until independence it was a college. Soon after independence, the institution was given the status of a central university in 1951 by an act of the Parliament. Overview ''The Hindu'' writes, "Santiniketan in many ways is still quite different compared to other universities in the country. Located at Bolpur in Birbhum district of West Bengal, the university still has the rural trappings that Tagore dreamt of. The classes are still held in the open under the shade of huge mango trees and students and tutors alike still travel by cycles to keep pollution at bay. The old buildings, even those that were made up of mud walls and thatched roofs, are still intact and find a place within the main campus. While some are preserved fo ...
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