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The Chitrakathi also known as Paithani paintingsare the work of a community of migrating story tellers found all over Maharashra and some other places. The tradition wasnamed after village Paithan. Recently it is termed Chitrakathi after the cast of the artist performers named Chitrakathis. Chitrakathi paintings is narrative tradition imparting to the village people their heritage of sacred stories of Mahabharata and Ramayana and other regional works. The Chitrakathi accompany their recitation of the epics with painting, puppet shows and mime as they move village to village. The Paithan tradition is involves both painting and story telling, image and performance.

The tradition was once so wide spread throughout the western Deccan, ei Maharashtra, northern Karnataka and Areas of Andra Pradesh. Paithan (Mahatashtra) in 17 thc. was also the home of a peculiar folk style of painting with remarkable originality and boldness of brush work. It is difficult to speak of any degree of accuracy on point, but the paintings very likely originated as mementos for pilgrims returning home from Paithan. The style in any case a fusion of the art of miniaturist with that of temple mural art and the angularities of the drawings indicate a kinship with not too distant Ellora.

The state of Maharashtra and Andra Pradeshhave their own tradition of scroll paintings originating from a group of wondering story tellers. The paintings of the 17th and 18 th c. project a strong male dominated culture. The mood of the paintings is fiery with battle scenes, spirit and demons generally occupying most of the space in canvas. The Takkar who migrated to this part in mid. 18 thc. whose occupation. The occupation of the Thakkar tribe was to travel from village to village to entertain people. While traveling they also work as secret information gatherers for the rulers and had close contracts with Maratha kings. They also manage to extract political secrets from people while performing the shows.