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Painting

Kalighat Painting

Kolkata, West Bengal

TownKolkata
StateWest Bengal
Craft typePainting
GI tagNot yet registered

About

A bold, brush-stroke painting style that emerged near Kolkata's Kalighat temple in the 19th century, evolving from religious imagery into some of India's earliest social and political satire art.

Did you know? Kalighat painting began purely as souvenir art for temple pilgrims but evolved within decades into biting social satire — some 19th-century Kalighat paintings mocked the very same colonial and elite society that bought them.