Scotland accepts Kinnal art

This is a story of the Scottish students who were fond of learning the Chowki art of Kinnal village.

Kinnal village of Koppala district in Karnataka is famous for Chowki art. This art has been brought up and nourished by the art loving ancestors of Kinnal.

Kinnal or Kinhal art and craft is slowly becoming famous all over the world. Once again, the historic art of creating Kinnal art work has been in news. Six of the students from Scotland learnt this art, during their 2 months stay at Kinnal. Formerly, the art work was taken to foreign countries only to exhibit them. But this time the foreigners were interested and came to learn it themselves. They also learnt kannada the regional language along with the art.

Since the time of Vijayanagara rulers, Kinnal artists resided in Kinnal , which is 12 km from Koppala.

The artistic works created using Chowki art are in different forms. Birds, animals, fruits, thrones, gods, goddesses and other human forms are created and painted in Chowki art style. Even today, the ceiling of the Virupaksha temple at Hampi has the art which was designed by the Kinnal artists.

The University of Glasgow, Scotland was impressed with this art and sent its students to learn the art. Tilly Gifford and Nick from the department of painting, Product Design Engineer Rob, Charlotte, student of Sociology, Fee, a student from designing section and Ailsa who was learning Spanish came to learn this art. The leader of this group was Tilly. She often visited India to see her grandfather at Mysore. Once during her visit to Mysore, she came across this art piece at a shop by name Ramson. The shop was in front of Mysore zoo. She was happy and was interested to learn the art. She then enquired the shopkeeper about this art and contacted the artist Ekappa Ramachandra. He denied her from teaching as he did not believe that a foreigner would learn this art. But she was determined to learn this art. The Craft Council of Karnataka and Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation Limited at Bangaluru helped her in this regard.

The handicraft at Mysore attracted Tilly so much that the colleagues at Glasgow University were encouraged to travel to Mysore.  They never expected any sponsor or donation from government or any other institutions in Scotland.  They learnt the art with the money from the sale of the paintings.  The expense of learning the art from Ekappa and other 6 members of the village was borne by the Scottish students.  In the beginning, they tried small handicraft works. But within 40 days they made dinosaurs, dancing monkey, parrot elephant, fish, snake, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and Dwarapalak(gate keeper of the Indian myth).

The six students who learnt the Kinnal Chowki cultural art also taught Ekappa the modern art techniques. So, he enjoyed teaching them.

Previously, Ekappa was of the opinion that disclosure of the art tactics would lead to stiff competition. But later he realized that the art would end up with him if he did not teach it to any one. And also he wanted the art to flourish in the foreign countries. The people in the village preferred to be software engineers at Bangaluru and other foreign countries. On the contrary, Tilly in turn inspired the villagers that the financial stability can be achieved by nourishing this art. With the help of the book “learn Kannada in 30 days”, she was able to communicate with the localites. The students wore the Indian traditional costumes like the sari, bangles, vermillion on the forehead, nose ring and earrings. They set an example to the Indians who were inclined to the western lifestyle. They enjoyed the festivals celebrated in the village. They believed that the festivals in India were more enjoyable than the Plotado festival of France.

Tilly and her team did not learn the Chowki art with intention of making money, but they wanted to help the people by teaching them what they learnt.  They wanted to teach this art to the needy to earn their livelihood.  They also wanted to launch the website, ‘Kinnal arts’ and explain the history of this unique art to the world.  At the end of their camp at Kinnal, the villagers liked them very much and did not want them to leave to Scotland.  They won the hearts of the villagers.