Museums are often associated with crowded urban centres, with the displayed objects far removed in time and space from the place in which they are exhibited. Not so with the Purvasha Folk and Tribal Art Museum, also known as the ODI Art Centre, located on the banks of the Chilika lake at Barakul, which is about a two-hour drive along National Highway 16 from Bhubaneswar. Surrounded by nature, the museum showcases folk and tribal art and artefacts spanning geographies—from the remote villages of Odisha’s Ganjam district to the island nation of Madagascar—many of which are disappearing fast. Based in a rural area itself, the museum locates the objects in the context from which they emerged, adding to the richness of the viewing experience.

The ODI Art Centre is also a community museum that encourages people to add to the collection by contributing artefacts. It is a thriving research centre on folk culture with 50 books with articles by international scholars to its credit. Its researchers contributed to two special issues of Marg Asia, one on mask dances and the other on percussion music of Asia. With corporate social responsibility (CSR) funding, it regularly conducts palm-leaf painting workshops and pattachitra demonstration classes.

The two-storied building has more than 30 galleries. One of the most striking galleries displays traditional Odia wooden doors. In an age when AI can design furniture, imagine a hand-carved wooden door capturing the life of a tribal farmer. His home, the rhythms of his daily life, his dependence on the forest—all are carved into a single slab of wood by an unknown artisan from Odisha’s Koraput district. Such doors may not fit into modern homes, but a few decades ago, they were objects of fascination and pride.

A temple door from Puri district features multiple incarnations of Ganesh, each form painstakingly chiselled by a local carpenter. Carved wooden doors were once common in Odia temples. The tradition still exists but is on the wane. The wood carvers are usually tribespeople from Koraput and Malkangiri, which are the hill districts of Odisha. There are craftspeople from coastal areas like Puri too, but the motifs they use are different.

Another gallery features Dhokra figurines like elephants, peacocks, owls, religious icons as well as measuring bowls and lamp caskets crafted in brass by traditional metalsmiths from Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh. When they are used as decor in urban living rooms, they rarely make us wonder about their origins and the artisans who made them. By placing them in context, the museum ignites the imagination, helping us fully appreciate their artistic and cultural value.

Asmita Nayak, a young student from Purusottampur in Ganjam district, was transfixed by the galleries of paintings and artefacts sourced from across the world. “Seeing artefacts online is one thing, but looking at them in real life and imagining the skill and patience behind each piece is an entirely different experience,” she said. Her father, Tuna Nayak, was equally impressed. He said that the visit had satisfied his daughter’s curiosity in a way no digital medium could.

Opening up a window

Yet the very idea of setting up a museum in a locality with a population of under 30,000 seemed preposterous at first. But the founder-researchers were moved by certain ideals in founding the museum. While working on the book Imaging Odisha: The Emergence of Cultural Identity of an Indian State, Volume 1 and 2, in the early 2000s, they had to source archival photographs from institutions like the British Museum and the British Library. “We had to cough up exorbitant amounts for some photos belonging to Odisha’s history. We paid 8 per photograph. In total, we paid nearly Rs.8 lakh to access images of our own history,” said Prasana Kumar Dash, a retired bureaucrat and founder member of the ODI Art Centre. That moment of realisation sparked off a larger idea. “We felt the need to create a space where future generations could access and experience their own cultural heritage without barriers. That is how the museum took shape,” Dash said.

The initiative gained momentum when the Odia art connoisseurs Parsuram Bisoyi and Prashant Kumar Dash generously donated 4 acres of land. The founders eventually secured support from the Museum Grant Scheme under the Union Ministry of Culture to lay the foundation of the museum in 2017. Barakul was chosen because of its location within Chilika, which draws a large number of tourists. The land on which the museum stands also includes a few cottages for visitors, a restaurant, and an amphitheatre. Writers and researchers can work peacefully here, immersing themselves in the cultural heritage. The museum hosts the Chilika Shelduck International Folk Carnival, an annual five-day festival bringing together folk art, music, dance, craft, and cuisine from Asia and Oceania to foster cultural exchange and promote tourism.

At the last edition of the Chilika festival themed on percussion music, artists from Korea and Vietnam performed with Indian percussion troupes. Interestingly, there are some amazing similarities between certain Korean and Odia musical instruments. For instance, the changgo of Korea (an hourglass-shaped drum, with two heads connected by ropes and belts to change pitch) has an Odia counterpart with the same name but with a slightly different shape.

Such connections are underlined in the gallery of international exhibits, where artefacts from more than 20 countries open up a window to the larger world. The late Abasar Beuria, a former Indian ambassador, donated his collection of artefacts from Africa to the museum. There are figurines and statues representing ancestral spirits and protectors alongside hand-carved tribal masks. Masks are also a feature of Odisha’s indigenous performative traditions. Masks from Ganjam’s Thakurani Jatra are exhibited alongside those from the district’s life-sized puppet dances like Pashumukha Nrutya and Sapua Sapuani. Wooden masks used in Ram Leela performances of Puri, Daspalla, and Bishipada are also on show.

A visitor to the museum would be immediately drawn to the wooden cowbells: once a familiar object, now almost an antique piece. Tied around the necks of free-roaming cattle, cowbells served a practical purpose in helping herders track grazing animals and guide them back to their sheds. Each bell produces a distinct, resonant sound. The museum showcases cowbells of various shapes and sizes, revealing the thoughtful design and scientific understanding that went into their making. Once an integral part of Odisha’s rural agrarian life, these humble devices are a testament to the creativity embedded in everyday traditions.

Scenes from daily life

Pattachitra art, Odisha’s celebrated tradition of painting with natural colours, is an obvious choice for any museum seeking to showcase the State’s heritage. A striking 8 ft × 12 ft work titled Sankhanabhi Patta depicts the sacred geography of Puri, revered as Sankhanabhi Kshetra (according to tradition, the city of Puri is structured like a conch shell, with the Jagannath temple sitting at its nabhi, or centre). This massive artwork with a conch-shaped frame by Tanmaya Moharana weaves together temples, human and divine figures, buildings, and animals into a single, vibrant visual narrative.

The walls are adorned with palm-leaf pattachitras, whose fine detailing compels awe. The pattachitra section also features Ganjapas, traditional playing cards from Ganjam. Each card contains pattachitra paintings in miniature. Even a defused mortar shell from the 1971 India-Pakistan War was turned into a work of pattachitra art by Sudhir Moharana.

Tribal artefacts celebrating indigenous lifestyles are a major attraction. Scenes from daily life are recreated through a Dhokra art tableau consisting of a neatly painted house and a kitchen giving a glimpse of women’s usual routines within the joint family system. Tribal jewellery, collected from various parts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh, enriches the display.

Dhokra items of household use like kajrotas (a small container made of brass used for storing and applying homemade kajal) and betel nut cutters, exquisitely carved with animal and human figures, are hung on the walls. They are from Sadeibareni village of Dhenkanal, known as one of the chief centres of Dhokra metal casting. Puppets from the Ravan Chhaya shadow puppetry tradition of Dhenkanal and rod puppets from Keonjhar are also exhibited.

“It is not easy to collect artefacts of archival value. Sometimes we have to travel to remote areas based on information about a rare painting or object. At the same time, we are running out of space,” said Sudhansu Sekhar Tripathy, director of ODI Art.

The founders lamented the lack of footfall and the absence of steady funding to sustain the museum. “We require nearly Rs.30 lakh annually just to pay salaries. Preservation of artefacts remains a major challenge,” said Prasana Dash. In a bid to manage maintenance costs, parts of the campus have been outsourced to a hospitality group that operates a bamboo resort and restaurant.

While occasional support comes from CSR initiatives, it is barely sufficient to keep the museum afloat. Bishweshwar Das, secretary of ODI Art, added that the urgent need to document and digitise the collection is also hindered by the lack of funds.

Satyasundar Barik is a special correspondent, The Hindu.

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