Part of Tunituni’r Boi [The Tailorbird’s Book published in 1912
Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury was born on 1863 and spent most of his life in Calcutta. He also introduced modern block making in India. Most of his family members are well known for so many different fields. His father was a scholar of sanskrit.
Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury was an artist of the 19th century. He was a designer, illustrator and writer. He used to write children's story books. One of the famous work 'Tunituni’r Boi [The Tailorbird’s Book] was published in 1912 and it is a collection of stories for children. There are stories of animals which depicts real life people and their conditions under the British rule in Bengal.
Tuntuni which is a tailor bird is the protagonist of the stories. His stories are about caste, religion and daily life of people depicted through animals.
The artwork is titled 'Pipre o Piprir Katha' depicting the story of an ant and a female ant. They are travelling in a rice husk boat. The artwork is sketched through ink on paper. Ants are using twig as oar to row the boat which is made out of rice husk.
His story book is very well known for his depiction of every day life under the British rule in Bengal along with Bengal partition.
The artwork "Piper o Piprir Katha" is a beautiful, vintage ink drawing by Upendrakishore Ray Chowdhury that depicts a delightful event from his story. It has a blank, aged paper background, showing a pair of lively and lively ants stuck in shallow water. The ants used a hollowed rice husk as an improvised boat that hit a sandbank. One ant is sitting in front, looking deep in thought while the second one is standing at the back of the ship and moving it with the help of a stick. Ray Chowdhury uses fine stippling, resembling a sketch, and short horizontal lines to create the sandy surface and rippling water. The picture perfectly demonstrates the extraordinary struggle of small creatures of nature in the vastness of silent land.
