Historical and Cultural Significance:
Cheriyal Scroll Painting is a unique and modified version of Nakashi art, deeply rooted in the cultural heritage of Telangana. Today, it is primarily practiced in Hyderabad, where this art form is celebrated for its rich local motifs and vibrant storytelling tradition. The paintings are created in a format reminiscent of film rolls or comic strips. They narrate mythological tales from the Puranas, as well as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Characters and events from these epics, along with regional folklore, provide the basis for the stories told in the scroll paintings.
Cheriyal paintings have a long-standing role in storytelling by the Kaki Padagollu community. Not unlike ancient Greek or Roman stages, these artists use their works, along with music and sometimes dance, to tell compelling stories. Until recently, their works filled scrolls up to forty-five feet in length, about three feet in width, and did not shy away from tales of dangerous, devil-fighting, Walt Whitman-ish local folk heroes. Now, despite the reduction of their works into frames, the scale of a tale is still no less epic.
Narrative Style and Artistic Elements:
Cheriyal scroll paintings are vertically oriented, stretched like an artist’s canvas. They are most often around 4- to 8-feet tall and 3- to 4-feet wide, although earlier examples are smaller. Even the instances of the format being taller than wide follow a more pronounced horizontal emphasis when one looks closely at the layering of space in the painting. Each panel—there are usually four to six—illustrates a part of the story being told. Different parts of the same panel can be seen as different “levels” of the same artistic jurisdiction. Borders divide panels and can best be described legally in terms of what a plantiff would say after having been wronged.
Cheriyal paintings most strikingly feature the bright and vivid primary colors they use, with red usually dominating the background. These paintings’ unique color palettes and traditional motifs make them instantly recognizable and deeply rooted in Telangana’s artistic identity.
Traditional Process of Creating Cheriyal Paintings:
Cheriyal paintings are made in a traditional way that requires a great deal of time and care. The canvas used is Khadi cotton; the materials that go into the making of the paint are starch, white clay, tamarind seed paste, and gum arabic. With these ingredients, you get a paint that has a durability comparable to oil paint and a smoothness quite similar to gouache. Artists make the outlines of the figures by free painting, which is shorthand for saying that they draw with considerable skill and without much in the way of mistakes.
Cheriyal paintings employ colors that are organic and derived from nature. These colors come from the same sources (like herbs) and are made in the same way (like dipping a brush in vegetable dye) as the colors used in millennia-old Indian paintings. Paint is brushed on a long scroll; the art is then varnished, which makes it breathtakingly vibrant and keeps it more or less as it would have kept in the millennia when humans first painted on rock faces.
Geographical Indication (GI) Status and Recognition:
The art form of Cheriyal Scroll Painting carries deep cultural and historic importance, representing Telangana’s artistic ancestry. Because of its singularity, the art was awarded Geographical Indication (GI) status in 2007, which protects its intellectual property rights and ensures that the form remains an authentic part of the region’s artistic landscape.
These paintings have acquired universal admiration and are the subject of a good deal of scholarly and unofficial research by people interested in traditional Indian art. With an upsurge of interest in the preservation of folk art, concerted efforts are being made to promote and ensure Cheriyal Scroll Painting as a living art form for subsequent generations.
Preserving Telangana’s Artistic Legacy:
Cheriyal paintings are a matter of pride for Telangana. They reflect the rich artistic traditions of the region. There is a steady decline, however, in the number of artisans who practice this craft. But dedicated efforts are being made to keep it alive—through academic research, the push to exhibit the paintings more often, and various government initiatives.
Cheriyal paintings, one of India’s most cherished and admired art forms, never fail to mesmerize with their storytelling, fine details, and distinctive color palettes.
