The fourth song is taken from the corpus of lyrics by Ramprasad Sen, a well-known saint and devotee of Goddess Kali, who lived Halisahar, Bengal, during the 18th Century. Ramprasad's devotional songs to Goddess Kali, known as "Ramprasadi", influenced…

Ramprasad was deeply affected by the Bengal Famine of 1769-70 (described in one of our famine tales) and the scarcities that rural Bengal experienced during his life time. The song selected here reflects his empathy with the suffering poor, which is…

This is the structure followed by Dukhushyam Chitrakar while composing the poem for the scroll painting. It is based on the research notes, source translations, summaries, and discussions with Ayesha Mukherjee and Sujit Mondal.

These are the initial research notes on sources shared with the artists, on the basis of which discussions were begun. One of the challenges of this story was the wide variety of sources - from official records to literary works. We focussed on…

This is a Bengali translation of excerpts from historical accounts in the EIC’s records, Hunter’s Annals, and poems (both English and Bengali originals) with a summary of the historical context. It was created for the scroll painters who could not…

Chhiattor-er Monnontor (The Bengal Famine of 1769-70) is based on academic sources and research which was discussed with the artists. On that basis, Dukhushyam Chitrakar first composed a poem and set it to music. The painting then began with a…

These images and video show the painters at work, with the natural colours they made themselves. The panels of the scroll were painted collectively by the chitrakar community over several days.In this video we interview the women painters (Jahanara…

The story of Chhiattor-er Monnontor is based on academic sources and research which was discussed with the artists. On that basis, Dukhushyam Chitrakar first composed a poem and set it to music. The painting then began with a pencilled outline of the…

The story of Chhiattorer Monnontor (the Bengal famine of 1769-70) is based on academic sources and research which was discussed with the artists. On that basis, Dukhushyam Chitrakar first composed a poem and set it to music. This poem narrates the…

The story of Chhiattor-er Monnontor is based on academic sources and research which were discussed with the artists before they began composing the narrative poem and pattern for the scroll. The conversations about the famine took place over several…

The story of Chhiattorer Monnontor (the Bengal famine of 1769-70) is based on academic sources and research which was discussed with the artists. The artists were given access to research materials and sources relevant to their story. These images…

In this video, one of the artists Argha Manna explains the development of the graphic narrative, and takes us through his remarkably detailed and well-researched sketchbook of preparatory drawings.

These images show the artists’ initial planning sketches, created while researching the history of the famine, and their work-in-progress as they developed the storyline and made decisions about framing the Chhiattor narrative within their imagined…