Cheriyal scroll painting is one of the earliest forms of audio – visual entertainment native to Telangana state. Hundreds of year ago, the story telling communities used to travel through the villages of Telangana, singing and narrating stories using the scroll as their visual aid. Cheriyal paintings are a unique pictorial presentation of the numerous tales from Hindu epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana and the various Indian Puranas. They acted as wonderful means of communication, particularly useful for illiterate people and conveyed significant moral virtues, motivating people to be virtuous.
The scrolls also depict the legends and mythologies of the communities along with their Gods and heroes.
This beautiful folklore based art form which originated in the 17th century is now practiced by only 15 decedents of the family. Best thing is the painting uses only natural dyes and colours extracted out of river stones, sandstones, charcoal, indigo etc.
The painting class is coordinated by Sonali Chowdhary, a development professional. Sonali and many other art lovers are on a mission to save Cherial painting from dying by promoting this art form through various media to ensure that the beautiful heritage continues..
Raw material: The Cheriyal Scroll painting is drawn on hand made khadi cloth or canvas. In Cheriyal scrolls only natural colours were used like white was obtained from grounded sea shells, black from lamp soot, yellow from pevidi stone, blue from indigo leafs, red from inglikam stone and the others from various vegetable dyes and ground stones. Every colour is mixed with thirumani tree gum, before being applied on the scroll. You will need to purchase the raw material separately.
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