What began as sacred rice flour strokes beneath women’s fingers has bloomed into Bengal’s cultural pride; here is how Alpana changed from a household ritual to high art
What Kolam is to Tamil Nadu, Kalamezhuthu to Kerala and Rangoli to Maharashtra, Alpana is to Bengal. All these floor paintings are associated with some auspicious occasion believed to propitiate the gods and goddesses to bring good fortune. For example, on the Lakshmi puja day, Bengali women symbolically draw the feet of the goddess from the entrance into the house believing that those are the steps she would take when she enters the household to bless them with prosperity. Alpana falls into the category of folk art, its origin going back to the hoary past.
Art historians and archaeologists observe that the first visual traces of floor paintings are found in one of the seals of Mohenjo-Daro with geometric symbols resembling a mandala which is drawn while worshiping women deities. Stephen P. Huyler writes in Painted Prayers, Women’s Art in Village India: “It is possible that this tradition of ornamentation has been passed down from mother to daughter for thousands of years. It forms a common thread that unites the innumerable cultures of India, peoples who are otherwise divided by race, language, caste, religion, and occupation. In a society dominated by men, it is the inheritance and artistic expression of the women through their own techniques and symbols — prayers painted or ‘written’ from the heart.”
In India, we find floor art with different names like, Mandana in Rajasthan, Sathia in Gujarat, Chowkpurana or Sona rakhna in Uttar Pradesh, Likhnu in Himachal Pradesh, Apna in Almora and Nainital region, Muggulu in Andhra Pradesh, Pakhamba in Manipur and Jinnuti in Odisha. All these words have roots in vernacular languages but some, experts say, go back to the pre-Aryan era. For instance, Mandana in Rajasthan comes from Mandan — to decorate. Rangoli, on the other hand, originates in the Sanskrit word of rangavalli, which means a creeper drawn with colours.
Uninterrupted lines, done freehand
The word alpana or alpona is believed to have been derived from the Sanskrit word ‘alimpan’ which means ‘to plaster’ or ‘to coat with’ — the art of making ‘ails’ or embankments, based on the belief that these decorative paintings kept the habitats safe and prosperous through their magical symbols.
Alpana is traditionally drawn in white. The effect is achieved by using a water-based paste made from uncooked rice kernels of unprocessed sun-dried paddy, called atop chaal. Tiny pieces of clean cotton cloth or cotton ball are dipped in the paste and held in between the fingers and then pressed to release the liquid to draw the pattern with the finger. Most Alpanas are drawn with uninterrupted lines and done freehand.
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The folk-art women in Bengal practised for ages has now stepped out into contemporary public space as well, thanks to art school students boosted by encouragement from organisers of cultural and religious events. It started in 2017 with an installation covering a 1.4 km stretch of the Lake Road, South Kolkata, said to be the longest street art installation in the world, during Durga Puja. The autumn festival, as is well-known, is the biggest celebration for Bengalis at home and abroad with a Bengali diaspora.
Of course, the students used paint brushes instead of fingers, but the designs were in authentic Alpana style. Later, in the same year, the Under-17 FIFA World Cup Football venue in the city’s Yuva Bharati Krirangan, Salt Lake, displayed a beautiful Alpana design at the entrance, mesmerising visitors from home and abroad.
Revived by Rabindranath Tagore
The recognition of Alpana as a sophisticated ‘art’ form, beyond the confines of households etched during auspicious occasions, is greatly due to the initiative of Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore. He encouraged its place as an art form in his abode Santiniketan. The fascinating journey of Alpana from thatched cottages to a high art form is chronicled by author Swati Ghosh in her well-researched book, Design movement in Tagore’s Santiniketan: Alpana, An Experiment in Aestheticism.
In the foreword in the book, renowned artist K. G. Subramanyan writes: “The Alpanas …are a part of our cultural heritage, and though difficult to date the origin, it is beyond debate that they are one of the most ancient surviving art forms.” He adds: “While many of his [Tagore] contemporaries were working towards the country’s political independence, Rabindranath gave his attention to the country’s cultural regeneration — namely expanding and refurbishing its intellectual resources and wakening its creative potential.”
At Selaidaha, Tagore’s country home of the zemindari (now in Bangladesh), Tagore became interested in folk culture through interaction with the villagers. He found that many of the folk arts and handicrafts were on the decline; many of the city-bred elite introduced now to western culture under colonialism looked down on them. He tried to rescue and revive them. Alpana was one of them. He found the designs drawn on brown papers by village women and started collecting them. He also tried to enthuse his literary and artist friends about this age-old art. Besides, Ghosh writes, “This passion and deep love for the art and culture was something that he wanted to transmit to the youth and student community of Bengal.”
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As Tagore gave shape to his dream institution Visva Bharati in Santiniketan, among other works of art he introduced at Kala Bhavana’s repertoire, was the floor art of Alpana, sometimes also drawn on walls. And thus “...Alpana became an integral part of Santiniketan’s decorations,” Ghosh writes.
Influence of Nandalal Bose
Artist Nandalal Bose, a pioneer of modern Indian art and trained under Abanindranath Tagore, had a huge influence in this melding of folk and the modern when he came to Santiniketan. As Ghosh writes: “He did not want to imitate traditional Alpana blindly but rather wished to create a new style keeping the basic movement and rhythm of the traditional form…he evolved Alpana as a secular art form.”
He planned to develop Alpana as an original creation through nature’s observation and classical traditional forms. “The two most important factors that influenced Santiniketan Alpana were the Ajanta style and nature.” The elaborate Alpana works that evolved in Santiniketan showcase how folk art and modern sensibility can merge together to be aesthetically appealing with the right touch.
Many women in Santiniketan contributed to the creative flowering of the Alpana art under Bose’s tutelage. One of the foremost was Sukumari Devi, a child widow, who joined the Kala Bhavana at Tagore’s invitation once he heard about her talent. Writings on Alpana art mention her as the genius that helped establish it as the ornamental art familiar to us today. Names like Gouri Devi, Jamuna Devi, Shyamali Khastagir, among others, come up while discussing the blooming of Alpana craft in Santiniketan. Their beautiful works adorn as illustrations in Ghosh’s book.
That even today Alpana is an integral part of Bengal’s art and culture milieu proves that an age-old art form can survive even against the onslaught of changes in an increasingly mechanised world.
