Painted scroll depicting the September 11 attacks on New York

Click here to explore a large detailed version of the scroll  which is 4.1metres long by 55.9 centimetres wide (about 13 foot long by 2 foot wide).

Painted scrolls have been used in Bengal in eastern India for centuries as a means of telling religious stories and also of informing people about important current events. Although today even the smallest village is likely to have access to televised news, this tradition continues in the villages of West Bengal not far from Kolkata.

Major events, whether local or global, become subjects for painted scrolls - recent examples have been the Asian tsunami, the Gujarati earthquake, and the assassination of Indira Gandhi, as well as broader subjects such as birth control and the spread of AIDS. The scrolls, a long strip of paper backed with cloth and painted in registers are carried from village to village by their painters and are unrolled before an audience, to the accompaniment of  songs which tell the story of the events depicted.

The attacks on New York on September 11th 2001 quickly became the subject of scroll paintings. This one, acquired from the artist, Madhu Chitrakar, in 2005, was painted in the village of West Medinipur in West Bengal in about 2004.

Click on the images of the 10 registers below for larger versions and details of the narrative provided by the artist.