an integral part of our intangible heritage  which bears an essence of folk & traditional media

As times changed over the years - especially moulding mass media and communication to adapt to global technological transformations over the last hundred years - folk and traditional media got influenced as well. This was also reflected in India - especially over the last 20 years as the world wide web explored a common platform for all forms and types of existing media and communication. The transformations within the intangible sector of folk and traditional media got reflected in various ways. Animation media picked up stories from oral traditions to make popular television shows, folk music was explored extensively to blend with popular music for mainstream films from various regions in India - thus, patachitra tradition too found a new voice. With intervention of mainstream global media, the performing art gradually got transformed into a descriptive medium - reducing much of the participation of the artists, his/her music, rhythm as well as the impromptu methods of storytelling. In spite of several times being severely criticised by social scientists for these drastic changeover as the medium of expression changed from being a performing art to a mere demonstrative art, the transformation also bred new methods of marketing ‘ethnic clothing and accessories’. This also spelled a new breather for the survival of this dying art. Thus, as patachitra from Bengal got to be displayed within New Media - especially through the personal websites of various folk artists as well as patua villages - a transformation evolved within the paradigms of local modes of entertainment- it found a voice within the global platform. With changing market demands and increasing reach through New Media -patachitra traditions have also recreated artistic vision for the new generation of painters as they experience to mould their traditional profession to the demands of the modern consumerist global market. With several ethical issues questioning the survival, sustainability and continuity of the folk tradition of patachitra from Bengal and changing social roles, reflected in specific gender participations, this paper explores the various transformations which occurred within the representation of the old tradition in modern New Media and the issues involved therein.