The uniqueness of our Indian folk artistry has an old age historical and habitual belief and carries with itself a rich aesthetics in the whole world. This traditional art practices require a specialized skills and perfection which has been passed on through generations. The art work of the artisans depicts diverse realities and myths in their own regional way. These artisans over the years have disseminated ethical values through their scroll paintings and have reached out to the inaccessible areas of our country. The cultural and traditional vibrancy of our tradition can be seen in this painting. Among this art form one of the famous art form are Patachitra paintings from West Bengal. This art has its own style and pattern of painting and expresses their own cultural identity, values and aesthetics. Patachitra art has a long history dated back to 2500 years and has contributed to the society through its audio visual scroll paintings narration. By just considering the Patachitrakars a folk art and a community practice in a defined region would not justify their uniqueness and undermine their contribution to the rural society and their role in keeping our old tradition alive and reaching out to the inaccessible areas of country and bridging the communication gap.

Over the period of time the Patachitra art form has shifted from oral and visual painting to just a visual paintings and the question arises that are we thinking about the sustainability of the uniqueness of this art form in the contemporary era. The demand of the contemporary situation has no longer confined the Patachitarakar to restrict themselves to their traditional periphery and forced them to transform their artform. The Patuas faced enormous problems and failed to compete with the liberalized market goods (Chatterjee, 2013). Other major drawback which made the Patachitra artisans more vulnerable was illiteracy and this artisans are living in situation of poverty, negligence and deprivation even after so many years of Independence. These artisans also lacked any major policy support from the government. The fast growing city life devalued the rural folk art work and this rural artisan found it difficult to find a safe and respectable space within any urban boundaries (Jefferson, 2014). At present the pressure are on these artisan communities either to preserve their tradition and uniqueness or to change as per the cultural shift and challenging globalized market. Hence, this study tries to focus on the issues and challenges faced by the present day Patachitrakars in terms of sustaining their own old tradition and for their own survival. The paper also tries to focus on the need of making the traditional art work as a source of livelihood for the rural artisans and preservation of our tradition through adaption.