Visited Raghurajpur near Puri || An open air art gallery || Patachitra || Paintings with natural dye

Raghurajpur is a heritage crafts village in Puri district, Odisha, known for its mastery in Pattachitra painting, an art form which dates back to 5th Century BC. It is also home to the Gotipua dance troupes, a precursor to the Indian classical dance form of Odissi. Raghurajpur is famous as the birthplace of one of the finest Odissi Gurus, Kelucharan Mohapatra. The small village is also home to crafts like Tussar (handloom silk) paintings, palm leaf engravings, stone and wood carvings, cowdung and paper toys.

Raghurajpur is only 10km by road from Puri yet not on the popular tourist circuit. So you have to book a car or an auto-rickshaw for travelling to and fro.

Every house in this Odisha village, just 15km from Puri, is a studio and every villager is an artist. It's like a open art gallery.

2000, Raghurajpur was declared as the state’s first heritage crafts village, after a two-year extensive study by the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).

The artisans of Raghurajpur are always happy to showcase their work to visitors. For the art-loving traveller, watching the process of this traditional art form in the artist’s own home is a unique experience.
A pattachitra artisan uses five main natural colours to make the painting. These include red, black, yellow, white, and gerua (red-ochre) colours. “We use conch shell to make white colour. Hingulal stone from the hills in Odisha is used to make red colour.