The word Chintz is Hindi and derived from the Sanskrit
"chitra" which means many-coloured or speckled, originally from India.
Pata-chitras are religious folk paintings common in the state of Orissa in northeast India. Pata-chitras exhibit the strong line and brilliant color that are the two principal aspects of Orissan folk painting. The tradition of painting pata-chitras is at least a couple of hundred years old.
The artists who paint pata-chitras are called chitrakaras. Sometimes a whole family is engaged in the work of preparing pata-chitras, under the supervision of the master painter in the family. The chitrakaras typically live in the vicinities of temples, such as the famous temple to Jagannath (considered a manifestation of the god Vishnu) in Puri, a seaside pilgrimage city on the Bay of Bengal. Chitrakaras are also concentrated in the nearby village of Raghurajpur. In the cities where the chitrakaras work, pata-chitras are commonly sold to pilgrims who come to visit the Jagannath temples.
The term "pata-chitra" is a compound of two sanskrit words. Pata means "cloth" or "canvas," or a cloth with a painting on it or the painting itself. The term is used in other areas of northeast India to mean a painting, typically a folk painting. The other part of the compound, chitra, means "painting" or "picture" or "illustration." Thus pata-chitra means a picture on cloth.
