Revival of Kinnal art

Kinnal Art was found and encouraged during the regime of King Krishnadevaraya, Vijayanagar empire in the year 1336. Since from those days, even today this traditional art is being carrying out. But one finds this art only in few families of Kinnal as many others have migrated. The old traditional art is protected by few people . The specialty of this art rest in painting, which is called LAJAWAR painting This paint is prepared by hammering tin 4 to 5 hours, till it gets molten form. After getting this liquid they add colors to paint it. It will not vanish or lasts its glamour, which we can see on the wood, steel and even on the marble and stones especially on the walls and sealing of olden temples and palaces. Usually two 15kg hammers are used for this purpose.

For the few that are carrying out this heritage art till now, the main problem is hammering of tin. Because it takes more time to melt and people who are engaged in this hammering work, they are charging more and availability of man power is less. Because of this reason artisans using artificial paints which will lade very early and genuine artists are concerned of loosing importance of Kinnal Art. Since this pounding of tin is tedious process people engaged in this pounding will get chest pain more offeten. Due to above all factors Kinnal art has lost its luster due to migration to commonly available led based chemical paints.

The whole village celebrated when Anjaneya Chitragar found a new echnique by using Tin pounding (Grinding) machine to get tin in a liquid form.

(as told by Hemanna Chitragar)

Photopgraph shows inventor Anjeneya Chitragar in white shirt. The innovation is funded under TePP by SSIT,Tumkur