SANJAY CHITARA & SONS

Sanjay Chitara is an award winning artist from Ahmedabad who grew up in the Mata Ni Pachedi tradition of art. These are sacred cloths that depict various images of the Mother Goddess that were used to form a temple by the nomadic Vaghri tribe in Gujarat who were not allowed into temples so created their own wherever they stayed. The cloths were commissioned to the special Chitara artists, who worked with thin sticks like kalams (pens) and made intricate renditions of the worlds that surrounded the Matas, all done by hand with natural pigments, and dyed in a complex process in flowing river water. Sanjay is an innovator who has brought in new colors and has also experimented with styles, stories and new forms. He keeps the tradition alive by including the next generation of his family.