Alpana/alpona Bengal - Chantal Jumel

Bengal alpona, "Books and references"

A selection of books on alpona written by researchers, alpona artists, and art lovers. Some paintings inspired by alpona.

Alpana/alpona Bengal

Bengal alpona, part 5 "Makar Sankranti in the villages"

Alpona adorn the courtyards of houses. A closer look reveals houses, stables or kitchens. Sometimes with pictograms of humans or animals inside, and offerings of chillies, onions, pea pods, different types of seeds meant for the kitchen, and grass.

Brata/rituals

Bengal alpona, part 4 "Makar Sankranti at Sumitra’s home"

On the walls before me, I find drawings I had seen in the book. There are farming tools, kitchen objects, lotuses, fish, birds, abstract human figures, divine feet, mangoes, betel leaves, a palanquin, a jar of vermilion, arm ornaments, and round grain baskets.

Brata/rituals

Bengal alpona, part 3 "At Sumitra’s home"

The path leading to the house is covered with footprints to show Goddess Lakshmi the way to their home. Rabi’s grandmother Sumitra draws on the beaten earth with a confident hand guiding the milky substance between her fingers.

Goddess Durga

Bengal alpona, part 2 "Meeting with Kolkata"

My next stop is Kumartuli, another mythical place in Kolkata. This is where sculptors create idols of the goddess Durga which are painted and decorated before being carried in procession to the river for immersion.

Brata/rituals

Bengal alpona, part 1 "The River by Jean Renoir"

The Bengal I had been dreaming about since my adolescence is that of its villages and artistic creativity of its women, like in the opening scene of Jean Renoir’s The River, filmed in 1950 in Barrackpore, near Kolkata.

Abanindranath Tagore

Alpona: Images and Symbols of Bengali Women

In Bengal, the ephemeral drawings are called alpona, alpana, or alimpan, and are associated with rituals called brata performed by women during festival times.

Chantal Jumel

How it all began

As a child I dreamed of becoming a dancer or an actress, a musician or a painter and my favourite book was “Contes et légendes de l’Inde”. The images showed black and white men in turbans, an assembly of bonzes, a man with an elephant face and characters with numerous arms and heads.