Jaba Chitrakar
Artist: Jaba Chitrakar
Life History of Jaba
L: Yes, yes. Ok now—Jaba , we want to hear the story
of your life . Where did you come from originally. How old were you
when you married, how was your life? We want to know all that.
Jaba: In my parental home—they were really very poor then. My mother
used to go out to sell bangles & stuff & brought us up. My father
died when I was very young. I was a child when he died & my
mother brought me up by struggling very hard. My elder sister was this
high, my older brother this much. We are 3 sisters & 1 brother. My
mother brought us up with great hardship. She couldn’t send us
to school. Then my older sisters were married. Only I remained. Then
my mother told me that I had to stay with her as I was very young. Now
as she went out to sell things I should learn some handicraft. So I learn
to weave date palm leaves into mats. I would make these mats & sell
them & our family expenses were met somehow. Then I was married.
When I came to my husband’s home he said you won’t have to
weave mats any more. Then I asked how our family would run? And he told
me we would manage if I learnt to paint scrolls. I started painting.
We were quite poor. He would go to the villages with scrolls & bring
some rice, muri, potatoes, eggplants & we would run the show. Then
he taught me to sing as well. Then I learnt to sing & paint.
He writes songs also. My husband writes songs. He helped me a lot & pushed
me upwards. Then he asked me to accompany him to Delhi.
Rani & others were in Delhi then. Now she took me to the fair & put
our names down. We sold some scrolls. Since that time our condition
has improved some. I shouldn’t say some, but quite a lot .Now I
compose songs myself. My husband used to do it. Now I write songs –do
the details. I wrote the song for the destruction of WTC & also Tsunami.
Both of us have written many songs. There are many stories about birth.
Here is a scroll—why a baby girl is killed & a boy is saved. My husband is teaching me the song he has written .And this one has been ‘ordered’ from Delhi. They have asked me to paint & do the song. In this scroll, here the doctor is checking the gender of the fetus with an instrument & here he is destroying it when he finds a girl baby. And here the husband is abusing his wife because she has too many daughters .He says how can I feed so many & is going off to get married again, abandoning her. He says she has too many girls , so he wants to remarry & have a male child. He will be happy only then. He is setting out to get married. Here the wife is begging at his feet –saying it is not her fault alone .He was a party to it & stops him from going. Here , when he leaves the mother is throttling her daughters , saying it is their fault that he has left. And here a meeting is held to stop murder of girl children. And here the mother is taking her daughters to peoples houses to work as maids. She goes from door to door, asking them to keep her girls. And in this meeting people are saying that girl children shouldn’t be killed & husbands shouldn’t be allowed to remarry.
L: Very good. Jaba where was your parental home before marriage
?
J: It was in Sabangkhana .It is a famous place for the art of making
mats.
L: Famous?
J: Most mats are made there.
A woman: The mats from there are well known.
A man: These mats from that place are very famous. The Sabang mats.
Jaba: I’ve done this scroll on tsunami myself. Then I have learnt
Krishna lila from my husband. I have learnt whatever he has painted.
Akos: And what about the ‘design’ of the scrolls—where
should the head be, the limbs & so on—are they your
ideas?
J: Yes, I have done them from my own ideas, not borrowed someone else’s.
Akos: For instance this flood of blue –the river. How can you
know where it should go?
L: How do you know?
J: Who, me? I know—for instance I know the tsunami happened & the
water poured out everywhere. So I painted what I thought about the whole
thing.
A: Pretty good.
J: Yes, I have painted my own ideas. I can do it.
A man: This is one of her larger scrolls.
A: And how do you decide which one you are going to paint? That I will
paint this today—that one tomorrow? That I will paint the one on
Tsunami today & the other on Manasa Mangal tomorrow?
J: Yes, I use my brain to decide which one I’ll do. Say,
I’ll paint the Tsunami now & maybe one on torture of women
later.
L: Ok, torture of women—that one? Oh–
J: No, that is on the murder of the girl child.
L: Oh, killing off girl children
J: That one is on torture of women. The one my husband is doing. Then
I’ve painted the wedding of the fishes. That I’ve learned
from my husband.
L: Which ones do you prefer? The modern, social or religious?
J: The religious ones are always better. But I’m painting on new
subjects now. They sell better. And I’m also writing the songs.
L: Oh, I see. Why do foreigners prefer the work of women painters?
I have been noticing that outsiders these days care more for the scrolls
painted by women. Why?
J: They prefer these because women use their ‘brains’ to
paint on various subjects, of diverse kinds. That is why they like the
works of women much more.
A: Good. Tell me if you have children, would you teach them this
craft?
J: Oh yes, our children have learnt from us. But my youngest daughter
paints from her own ideas. She is really smart. Wherever we go, to Delhi
or Bombay, she will sing, paint, do everything on her own. . If I tell
her—dear one, you take some rest; stop painting; she will tell
me it will be good for me if I paint. I feel good when I paint; I can
learn new things. That is what she is like. She sang a song for you yesterday—Sonia.
L: Sonia. Oh, the little girl.
J: She has no fear or shame. If she is asked to paint all day she will
do it.
L: How many kids do you have?
J: I have 3—1 son & 2 daughters. L: What do they do—your
son? J: My son goes to school & my daughters too. Today school
is closed.
Akos: That is good. Then they like this as well?
J: Yes; they like it as their parents do it. And they feel that by painting
they can earn for the family to run well & they think they have this
in their lives. We have it in our family.
A man: They have a scroll on their story.
L: We heard it yesterday. Now tell us which places in India
have you visited?
J: Me? I have been to Bombay, Delhi, Dehradun, Punjab, Chandigarh.
L: Now sing a song. Which scroll song do you want to sing?
J: Which one do you want to hear? The Tsunami? Manasa? L: We have
Tsunami
J: Or do you want to listen to the one on the wedding of the fishes?
L: The wedding of the fishes.