 The famous temple of Lord Jagannath at Puri. Over the centuries, this shrine has fostered the arts and crafts of Orissa. Tiny shops around the temple display Orissa's handicrafts for sale to pilgrims and tourists. Stone and wood carvings, metalware and clay toys, hornworks and paintings. Paintings known as Patachitras, about eight miles from Puri, is the village of Raghurajpur. Here live a group of painters called Chitrakyas. Their number is small, hardly 30 families in all. A simple religious people. During fairs and festivals, line drawings are practiced by women purely as a religious ritual. Perhaps this led to the practice of decorating the walls of temples with paintings. Patachitra of Orissa has a tradition of great antiquity. This folk art is predominantly traditional and is carried down as a hereditary profession from father to son. The Chitrakyas use only indigenous material. A mixture of chalk and gum made from tamarind seeds is applied on strips of cotton cloth to form their canvas. After drying, it is cut into required sizes. The surface of the canvas, thus prepared, gets a leathery finish. Their subject matter is mostly mythology or folk lore. They use natural earth and stone colors, confined largely to three or four tones of bright primitive tints. The temples of Orissa provide them inspiration. Most of these paintings are reproductions of the ancient works of art on the temple walls of Orissa. This is a reproduction of a famous fresco of the 15th century AD, found in the Jagannath temple of Puri, depicting the Kanchikaveri Yatra of Raja Purushottamdev. Incidents from Lord Krishna's childhood, the legends of Radha and Krishna, the war of Mahabharata with its splendor and spectacle. Various episodes from the Mahabharata adorn the borders of this single piece. According to Pata painting, other paintings are on playing cards in Orissa. They are distinguished by their circular foam and paintings on the back. Preparation of Papya Mashe masks is yet another speciality of these painter families. Women and children often take active interest in the work. These painted masks were once used by folk opera groups. Out of ordinary straw and light wood, they also make attractive painted dolls. And brush in hand, the painters use almost any surface to give form to their imagination and sense of beauty. Pata paintings make beautiful wall decors and their demand is on the increase both at home and abroad. The dedication of Chitrakas and the patronage of pilgrims have clipped alive this folk art for centuries and will continue to do so for a long time to come.