Narrating the pandemic: Paṭacitras of West Bengal, India

This article examines the impact of the novel Coronavirus pandemic on the traditional scroll painters, the citrakars or paṭuỵās of Bengal, and analyses the representations of the Coronavirus in the paṭacitra art of Medinipur and Kalighat. It argues that the adaptation of the narrative performances in the digital space marked an important milestone in the long history of the transformation of Bengal paṭacitras. Since the last decade of the 20th century, the market for paṭacitras has become increasingly urban, and even global. By opening up paṭuỵā art in the cyberspace and the social media, a direct contact was established between village-based scroll painters and a world-wide virtual audience during the first phase of the pandemic in India, a period which saw the creation of a series of pandemic related scroll paintings, reflecting shared universal concerns regarding human vulnerability. The initial optimism, however, was dissipated during the second, more virulent phase of the pandemic.