Sunday, July 6, 2008

Walls of Bhubaneswar


सेल फ़ोन एंड पश् पल्ली

Recently Walls of Bhubaneswar got decorated with beautiful paintings by the Bhubaneswar Municiplal Corporation.The new Municipal Commissioner is doing an excellent job in making Bhubaneswar the capital city of Orissa a model to other small cities of India . In this image you can see the walls painted with the similiar prints of famous Orissa Saree



‘Pasa-palli’. Pasa is the word for the chequer board and it is a very popular game almost exactly like ludo. Pasa palli is therefore the saree full of chequers – maybe they played on their sarees? This element is usually found all over the saree and is not restricted to one area of the piece.

Puri Rathyatra Paintings

Another view of Bhubaneswar Walls. Here you see the painting of the famous Rath Yatra. These wall paintings are the part of the beautification work taken over by the BMC under the leadership of the dynamic lady Aparijita Sarangi.
Today is the World famous Rath yatra .Ratha Yatra is a major Hindu festival associated with Lord Jagannath held at Puri in the state of Orissa, India during the months of June or July (Rainy Season)Most of the city's society is based around

around the worship of Jagannath (Krishna) with the ancient temple being the fulcrum of the area. The festival commemorates Krishna's return to His home in Vrindavan after a long period of separation from the people there.
The huge processions accompanying the chariots play devotional songs with drums, tambourines, etc. Children line the streets through which the chariot will pass and add to the mass chorus. The Rath carts themselves are some approximately 45 feet high and are pulled by the thousands of pilgrims who turn up for the event. Millions of devotees congregate at Puri for this annual event from all over the country and abroad. It is also telecasted live on many Indian channels.

Odissi Dance

The Bhubaneswar Municipal Commissioner, who has taken up the beautification of Bhubaneswar is in a much happier mode, because she has been able to kill two birds with one stone.
With the decision to cover the walls of the Capital City with rural and natural paintings, on one hand she has been able to save the walls from the onslaught of the nude posters with ugly writings and on the other the empowerment of the poorly paid artists was taken up।





Here the walls are decorated with the paintings of Odissi dance which is like other forms of Indian classical dance, the Odissi style traces its origins back to antiquity. One of the most characteristic features of Odissi dance is the Tribhangi. The concept of Tribhang divides the body into three parts, head, bust, and torso। Any posture which deals with these three elements is called tribhangi। This concept has created the very characteristic poses which are more contorted than found in other classical Indian dances।The Odissi (Orissi) dance is the Indian classical dance from the Eastern state of Odissa. It has a long, yet broken tradition. Although dance in Odissa may be traced back more than 2000 years, it was brought to near extinction during the colonial period




Cycle and Pasa Palli Sarees
Another shot of Bhubaneswar Walls. This one is taken near the A .G Colony.
As a recent beautification of Bhubaneswar city ,BDA ( Bhubaneswar Development Authority) has started painting the walls of the city with paintings which shows the heritage and culture of this city and Orissa.
Here the painting you see on the walls tells us about the unique style of Orissa sarees-Pasa Palli.



Pasa Palli Pasa-palli’. Pasa is the word for the chequer board and it is a very popular game almost exactly like ludo. Pasa palli is therefore the saree full of chequers – maybe they played on their sarees? This element is usually found all over the saree and is not restricted to one area of the piece.

Bonda Tribes

As a part of the bautification of Bhubaneswar city by BMC the walls of Bhubaneswar are painted with beautiful art works. About the painters BMC has taken a determined decision to go ahead with ordinary painters of the villages, who knew more about Orissa’s culture, tradition, religion and rituals than the urbanites.

In this image you see the paintings of Bonda Tribe.The Bonda are an ancient tribe of people numbering approximately 5000 who live in the isolated hill regions of the Malkangiri district of southwesternmost Orissa, India, near the junction of the three states of Orissa, Chhattisgarh, and Andhra Pradesh. The Bonda are a scheduled tribe of India and are also known as Remo (meaning "people" in the Bonda language), Bhonda, Bondo, or Bondo Poraja. Their language belongs to the Munda subgroup of the Austro-Asiatic language family.[1]




The Bonda are generally semi-clothed, with the women characterised by the wearing of thick silver necklace bands. The tribe is one of the oldest and most primitive in mainland India with their culture little changed in over a thousand years. Their isolation and known aggression[citation needed] continue to preserve their culture despite the pressures of an expanding Indian population.

The best way to view members of the tribe is by going to one of the local town markets. It is not considered safe to venture into their tribal areas. Bondas still use 'binnimoy protha', i.e. give-and-take policies.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

oh dude !
goooooood job .
keep it up.

Aditya Chandra Panda said...

Thanks for putting this up man... really feel proud that the city is heading this way... just hope that the citizens cooperate enough and become civilized enough not to pee or spit on the roads, become saner drivers and, in general, saner people.

Anonymous said...

Yaa, you are right.
Less people think like you.

PCP.Senthil Kumar said...

Hi Radeeh,

Very good work, keep it up :)

Radeeh kollam said...

thanks Senthil , but my blog is not listed in blog search . Can you tell me how to list my blog in google blog search .

Shibashis said...

hey dude nice blog but ......it should be better...bcoz it's a'but orissa which is rich in many culture....so u should try to post more in details a'bout our state.

Unknown said...

Xcellent stuff mashe..i cant imagine bhubaneshwar to be the one u have depicted...whoever has come out with this idea is really great.

Unknown said...

thank u very much Mr. radeeh for ur blog link bout "walls of bhubaneswar"...
myself komal vyas, i recieved ur scap bout that on orkut....
few months back i seen these walls n news realted to that on one prime news channel but i forgot to notice that place...
i read ur artical n thank u for such a useful information to share with others... specially people like me... its true inspiration..
i really apriciate ur afforts... well done.. keep it up :)

................your's entirely said...

Thank you for posting these...I really really really miss Bhubaneswar...It's the best

Tanmay said...

Hi Radeeh,

You have a nice blog going. Really liked your photographs.

I was greatly moved by the wall painting initiative at Bhubaneswar. I have compiled and categorized quite a few wall paintings of Bhubaneswar in a series of blog articles starting with "Bhubaneswar Wall Paintings - Tales of Orissa" (http://elusive42.windforwings.com/2009/05/bhubaneswar-wall-paintings-tales-of.html).

Any comments/contributions are welcome. Thanks!

Rajesh said...

nice pic so i like it tha blog southindianmasalapics

parag said...

awsome stuff...

Dr Piyush Ranjan Rout said...

I am so happy to see write ups on Bhubaneswar Wall Paintings. I am not sure whether you all knows how it all begun.
We were almost shamed every time we used to have foreign delegates, each time they asked if ``this is what a historic city has to show to others.'' There were many walls in the city that were used as site suitable for goat butchers, garbage dumps, urination spots. Suddenly form out of blue my mind thought about wall painting and immidietly the thought was transferred to Urban Development Secretary. So the first wall painting of BBSR came in front of Nirmal Plaza on way or out from Air Port. Latter on the experience motivated or rather BMC got convinced to transform these walls into good looking paintings. Then there were many owners to take credit but today everyone left these walls again back to square one. However, it was a good lesson for me dealing with Goat Butchers removal in BBSR ! thanks for popularizing the wall paintings !