Famous for its Patta Chitra painting, this artists' village, 14 kms from Puri, makes an interesting excursion. No village is more involved in preserving India's priceless skills than Orissa's Raghurajpur with its thatched, brick, houses on high plinths with sit-out platforms; and artists busy at work.

The paintings are done on specially prepared cotton cloth which is coated with a mixture of gum and chalk and polished, before natural colours are applied. Little girls sit in front of house with a mural of the great Trinity of Puri, and a flowering creeper in the religious folk-art style. Craftsmen carve effigies out of wood and paint them in vivid, primary, colours. Bright altars for the homes of devotees are nailed together with a jeweller's care, and then painted.

Adapting an unusual art form to the techniques of virtually imperishable palm-leaf manuscripts, the artists of Raghurajpur have evolved Tala Patras. Gods, goddesses, heroes, mythical beings grow as stylus cuts into a yellow-green strip of palm leaf. Dried, the leaves become as hard as slats of wood, the figures permanently engraved on them.

The best known creation of Raghurajpur is the Patta Chitra, classical Orissan painting. Originally these pattas were affixed to the sheltering screen behind which Lord Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra (the Puri Trinity) rested for fifteen days. The paper on which Patta Chitras are painted is specially prepared using a paste made of tamarind seeds and powdered chalk. This makes it parchment-tough. On it, using delicate brushes, the fine outlines of the painting are drawn. These, are then, filled in with colours to create pictures from the epics like Mahabharata, and Ramayana, with a delicacy and precision that rivals calligraphy.

Though the arts of Raghurajpur were originally inspired by religious themes, the artists have responded to changing demands and have begun to handle secular subjects with the same painstaking finesse. Everyone here seems to be either an established artist, an aspiring artist, or a probationary one. And art overflows everywhere, as if the creative people of Raghurajpur cannot contain themselves.

By Air: Nearest airport is Bhubaneswar- 50 km.

By Rail: Raghurajpur is 10 km away from Puri railway station.

By Road: Tourist taxis and buses are available from both Bhubaneswar and Puri.

OTDC Panthaniwas (ph. 2562), Puri

Mayfair Beach Resort, CT Road (ph. 4041), Puri

Oberoi Hotel, Nayapalli (ph. 56116), Bhubaneswar

Meghdoot, 5-B Sahid Nagar (ph. 55802), Bhubaneswar