RAGHURAJPUR

Raghurajpur, a small village in Puri district, occupies a unique place in the cultural map of India. It is famous for its master Pattachitra painters and as the birthplace of legendary Odissi dancer Kelucharan Mohapatra. The village is inhabited by artisans producing sheer poetry on pieces of treated cloth, dried palm leaf or paper, Ganjifa Cards are practised here. The outer walls of most of the houses are wonderfully decorated with mural paintings of mythological scenes from the Ramayan and the Mahabharat. Entrance of the Village Temple at Raghurajpur View of Coconut Trees This coconut-palm shaded village is quite different from other villages of the State. It has its own identity. What is unusual is the number of outsiders including foreigners visiting the village round the year. These people don't come here to see a typical Orissan village from close quarters but to see and enjoy the rich traditions of Orissan arts and crafts at one place. The primary art of this village is Pattachitra, but apart from this, the village has a community of artisans, who produce different varieties of handicrafts items such as palm leaf engravings, Ganjifa playing cards stone carvings, papier mache toys and masks, wood carvings, wooden toys, cowdung toys and tusser paintings. Perhaps nowhere else in India one finds such a congregation of so many arts at one place. This is also the only village in India, where each family is engaged in one craft or another. Some of them are winners of National Awards. One comes across the best tradition of Orissan paintings and some of the finest pieces of work in this village. “AT Raghurajpur, every villager is an artist and every house is an artist’s studio.” Here, art is not just a profession or passion but it is a way of life. Painting on House wall View of the Village Painting on House wall Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) selected this village to revive the ancient wall paintings of Orissa and to give this village its rightful place both in the cultural and tourist maps of the country. It was declared as a heritage village by INTACH in 2000 and became a major rural tourist destination of Orissa. It attracts thousands of domestic and foreign tourists. It is the first village to be developed as part of the rural tourism promotion project.