‘Pata Dekhabo’ Celebrates the Living Legacy of India’s Storytelling Scrolls

Long before cinema, television or even the printed book became common, stories in many parts of India travelled differently.

They were sung.

They were painted.

And they unfolded one scroll at a time.

A new exhibition titled Pata Dekhabo? at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) Art Passage in New Delhi revisits this remarkable tradition, bringing the centuries old art of Patachitra scroll painting back into public conversation. Rather than treating these works as relics of the past, the exhibition presents them as living records of India’s cultural imagination, where every painted panel carries a story waiting to be narrated.

The phrase Pata Dekhabo?, meaning “Shall I show you a scroll?”, is itself rooted in the tradition of the patuas, the travelling artist storytellers of Bengal. These artists would move from village to village carrying long painted scrolls, slowly unrolling them while singing the stories illustrated on each panel. The performance combined painting, music and oral narration, turning every audience into participants rather than passive viewers.

It was storytelling in its most immersive form.

The exhibition showcases 46 reproductions of Patachitra scrolls drawn from the KNMA Collection alongside works from public and private collections. Spanning nearly three centuries, the display demonstrates how this art form has continually adapted to changing social, religious and political landscapes while preserving its distinctive visual language.

One of the exhibition’s greatest strengths lies in showing that Patachitra is far more diverse than many people realise.

While the tradition is commonly associated with Odisha, its roots stretch across the cultural landscape of eastern India, including undivided Bengal and parts of present day Jharkhand. Over time, different schools of Patachitra emerged, each developing its own artistic vocabulary and storytelling style. Some scrolls focused on episodes from the Ramayana, the Mahabharata and Krishna’s life. Others documented local folklore, religious rituals, social customs and even contemporary political events.

In many ways, these scrolls functioned as both art and journalism.

They preserved community memory long before photography or newspapers became widespread.

The exhibition also highlights how the Patachitra tradition evolved with society itself. As colonial Bengal underwent social and political transformation during the nineteenth century, patua artists began responding to those changes through their work. Their scrolls expanded beyond mythology to include everyday realities, public health campaigns, social reform movements and changing cultural values.

This ability to adapt is perhaps the greatest reason the tradition has survived for centuries.

Patachitra has never remained frozen in time.

Instead, it has continuously absorbed new realities while retaining its core identity as a visual storytelling tradition.

Another compelling aspect of the exhibition is its exploration of how modern Indian artists engaged with folk traditions. Masters such as Jamini Roy and Ramkinkar Baij drew inspiration from the bold lines, expressive forms and narrative simplicity of Patachitra, helping bridge the gap between folk and modern Indian art. Their work demonstrates that folk traditions have never existed outside mainstream artistic practice. Instead, they have quietly shaped some of India’s most celebrated artistic movements.

The exhibition also reminds visitors that Patachitra was never meant to be viewed in silence.

Unlike conventional paintings displayed on gallery walls, these scrolls were created for performance. Every image was accompanied by song, rhythm and spoken narration. The scroll itself only became meaningful when it was gradually revealed, allowing stories to unfold scene by scene.

That performative quality makes the tradition surprisingly relevant even today.

In an age dominated by short videos, digital storytelling and visual media, Patachitra feels less like an outdated folk practice and more like an early form of multimedia communication.

Perhaps that is why exhibitions like Pata Dekhabo matter.

India possesses one of the world’s richest folk art traditions, yet many of these practices remain overshadowed by more commercially visible forms of culture. Museums have often struggled to present folk art without reducing it to decorative objects. By focusing on storytelling rather than simply aesthetics, Pata Dekhabo restores the human context that originally gave these works their meaning.

It encourages viewers not just to admire the paintings but to imagine the voices, songs and communities that brought them to life.

In doing so, the exhibition quietly challenges a common misconception that folk art belongs only to the past.

Instead, it suggests something more powerful.

That traditions survive not because they remain unchanged, but because each generation finds new ways to tell old stories.

And in an era when attention spans are shrinking and visual culture is changing rapidly, India’s painted scrolls continue to remind us that some of the most enduring stories are still the ones patiently unfolded, one frame at a time.