Dumka Santhali Scroll Painting Jadupatua Jharkhand

Dumka district in Jharkhand is the heartland of Santhal tribal culture and the Jadupatua scroll painting tradition, practised by a community of itinerant artist-healers (Jadopatia) who traditionally painted sequential narrative scrolls depicting afterlife journeys of the deceased to ease the grief of bereaved Santhal families. The scrolls are painted in vegetable pigments on hand-made paper, depicting scenes of soul transit, court of the dead, rebirth, and nature motifs. Today cooperative Jadupatua painters in Dumka produce framed art for craft markets and export, adapting the traditional sequential narrative style for single-frame compositions. The paintings are distinct from Madhubani and Warli in their sequential panel composition and use of dark outline with flat colour fill. Dumka cooperative artists market through Jharkhand Hastshilpa cooperative and India International Trade Fair.