48 year old Kripamoyee Karmakar of Bonbirsingha village is well known as a pata Durga painter in Bankura district of West Bengal. A pata Durga also known as a thakurani pata are paintings of Durga on cloth which are worshipped in some regions instead of clay images of the deity. Kripamoyee lives in a village that is a short distance from the Jamkuri Rajbari where descendants of a branch of the Malla kings of Bishnupur reside and who continue the worship of thakurani patas at the Rajrajeswari temple. She claims that her in-laws` family is descended from Gunadhar Karmakar, the first pater Durga maker of Jamkuri, who was awarded land in the neighbourhood as a gift for his services by the then king. 

Though not a traditional painter, Kripamoyee had a talent for painting from a young age. Hailing from a family of metal workers (Karmakar) from Bardhaman, she was married off soon after she completed her schooling in 1992. Her father-in-law, Nitai Karmakar, was well established as the painter of the Thakurani patas of Jamkuri at the time. Recognising her skill, her father-in-law began to train her. At first, Kripamoyee would sit by his side and observe him carefully and then try to reproduce the art. She trained for ten years learning every nuance of the tradition and eventually,  when her father-in-law passed in 2001, it fell on her to continue the tradition. 

Nervous about this huge responsibility at first, she would place a pata painted by Nitai in front of her and assiduously copy it. Since Nitai used to prepare the colours for her to use, she also had to learn how to mix colours herself. In this she was guided by her husband. The first step is to refine the khori mati (chalky clay) by diluting it with water and sieving it through a cotton cloth multiple times to separate it from grit or sand. This is then mixed with glue from the wood apple or tamarind seeds, until a smooth, thick paste is formed.  This is used as the base coat for the canvas. Similarly other colours, either procured from clays or stone rubbings, are sieved and mixed with glue. 

Over time, Kripamoyee`s confidence grew, but she did not paint anything beyond those three annual patas, one for each day of the festival. These are the Baro (elder) Thakurani, the Mejo (middle) Thakurani and the Chhoto (younger) Thakurani. While the Baro and Mejo thakurani patas are identical, with Shiva and Durga facing opposite directions, the Chhoto thakurani pata has Shiva and Durga facing the same direction. It takes her a month to make these three patas. Kripamoyee now uses powder colours bought from a local shop; she claims these are not chemical colours. 

Kripampoyee’s work started to attract attention sometime in 2007, thanks to a local teacher and researcher. People started visiting her village and in 2013, she was invited to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in Delhi and later, the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sanghralaya (National Museum of Humankind) in Bhopal. Within a few years, she began to be invited to museums and workshops in other cities around the country. She also started painting patas on other themes, but these cannot be viewed as traditional. Though it is traditional thakurani pata painting that gives her the greatest pleasure, this is not her main source of income – metal work, tailoring and knitting are what sustain her and her family. And for certain festivals, she also crafts clay votive figurines which are usually unbaked, since they are eventually ritually immersed in a lake or pond.

Kripamoyee also paints the Mahamari (epidemic) pata for the Rajeswari temple, that is worshipped at the dead of night on Nabami. According to her, the original painting had been commissioned by a Jamkuri king a long time ago, possibly during a severe outbreak of cholera in the area. The painting is possibly that of the folk goddess Sitala. The story goes that the king was visited by the goddess in a dream and ordered to worship her. From then onwards, this worship is conducted every Nabami but in the greatest of secrecy, away from the public eye. The painting itself is neither viewed by the priest nor the members of the palace, the only witnesses to the puja. It is kept folded and worshipped thus. This is because of a superstition attached to this painting, that  whosoever sees it would die in three days. Apparently, the original artist had died soon after he completed the painting. Over time, quite naturally, the original painting began to disintegrate, but no artist dared to touch it, in spite of repeated requests from the royal household. 

Well after Nitai’s death, it was Kripamoyee who courageously agreed to touch up the painting. This was in 2011.The painting, which is about three and a half feet high, has not been touched since, but the quick-witted Kripamoyee, quite unafraid, returned home and quickly made a copy of the painting from memory. She began to readily show it to people and the fear among the villagers gradually began to dissipate. But the special Nabami puja carries on. 

Kripamoyee is a two-time winner of the Bankura district award for handicrafts. She has also received the Asian Paints Sharad Shamman for 2025. She has taught her son the thakurani painting tradition and it is he who will continue the tradition after her.