Palm leaf paintings are very ancient
in Orissa. In Orissa the Palm Leaf illustrations are mainly of two types,simple
engravings or illustrations in pure line on palm leaf and engraving with colour
fillings.
The Talapatrachitras or the palm leaf engravings consist of frozen linear drawing
as illustrations of manuscripts. In these engravings, colours are muted and
play a very minor part. Where colours are at all applied, they are just painted
either to emphasize the inscriptions, or to fill up blank space. In Orissa,
manuscripts were written on palm leaves even during the Mughal period when the
paper was freely available.
In the limited space of the oblong palm leaf with a small width, human figures
completed with details of hair style and dress, animals, flowers and trees are
executed with great precision and beauty, the tool of this art is a sharp style
and it needs a remarkably steady hand to be able to wield this tool on thin
strip of leaf.
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