Born in 1985 near the sacred city of Puri on the Bay of Bengal, Gitanjali Das continues a hereditary tradition of Pattachitra painting. As one of Hinduism’s most important pilgrimage centres, Puri is home to the Jagannath Temple, where Lord Jagannath, revered as the Lord of the Universe, is worshipped alongside his siblings Balabhadra and Subhadra. The practice of painting (chitra) on cloth (patta) is closely linked to the temple’s ritual and visual culture. During the summer month of Ashadha, when the deities are believed to fall ill, public darshan is suspended for two weeks and painted images of the divine triad are displayed in their place. These substitutes, known as anasar patti, receive the same ritual reverence as the main temple icons.
Gitanjali works within the tradition of painting yatri pattas, devotional images historically produced for pilgrims as sacred souvenirs, reflecting the belief that a pilgrimage to Puri is incomplete without carrying home an image of Lord Jagannath. Her subjects remain rooted in Vaishnavite belief, depicting Jagannath as Maha Vishnu alongside episodes from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and related mythological narratives.
Stylistically, her paintings adhere to the Pattachitra idiom, characterised by bold outlines, flat areas of vibrant colour, decorative borders and figures portrayed with frontal torsos and profile faces. Her graceful figures convey movement through pose, gesture and gaze, while finely detailed linework contributes to the ornamental elegance and expressive clarity of her style. Gitanjali also experiments with expanding and reinterpreting mythological narratives associated with Vishnu and Jagannath. By isolating iconographic motifs and placing them against stark monochrome backgrounds, she shifts attention from dense narrative detail to symbolic form, creating a contemporary visual language that invites new readings of familiar sacred stories while remaining grounded in devotional tradition.
Among the few female Pattachitra artists working today, Gitanjali paints on handmade cotton cloth (patta) or raw tussar using natural pigments: white from powdered conch shell, red and yellow from local minerals, black from lamp soot, and green from plant leaves.
Her work has been exhibited at Jehangir Art Gallery (2024) and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (2025), and is held in several collections, including the museum’s own holdings and the Michael Buxton Collection in Melbourne.
