Pata-chitras are religious folk paintings common in the state of Orissa in northeast India. Pata-chitras exhibit the strong line and brilliant color that are the two principal aspects of Orissan folk painting. The tradition of painting pata-chitras is at least a couple of hundred years old.

The artists who paint pata-chitras are called chitrakaras. Sometimes a whole family is engaged in the work of preparing pata-chitras, under the supervision of the master painter in the family. The chitrakaras typically live in the vicinities of temples, such as the famous temple to Jagannath (considered a manifestation of the god Vishnu) in Puri, a seaside pilgrimage city on the Bay of Bengal. Chitrakaras are also concentrated in the nearby village of Raghurajpur. In the cities where the chitrakaras work, pata-chitras are commonly sold to pilgrims who come to visit the Jagannath temples.

The term "pata-chitra" is a compound of two sanskrit words. Pata means "cloth" or "canvas," or a cloth with a painting on it or the painting itself. The term is used in other areas of northeast India to mean a painting, typically a folk painting. The other part of the compound, chitra, means "painting" or "picture" or "illustration." Thus pata-chitra means a picture on cloth.

In the preparation of pata-chitras, first two pieces of cotton are sized (they may be as large as 4 by 2 meters). One sheet is spread on a smooth floor and a coat of tamarind gum (prepared from powder of tamarind seeds) is evenly applied over it. The second piece is placed over the first and pressed down upon it. Then a coat of tamarind gum is applied to this surface, which will eventually be the painting surface. The bonded cloths are left in the sun to dry. When dry, a paste of chalkstone powder and tamarind gum is applied to first one side, and when it has again dried, to the other side. Then both sides are alternately polished with stones. Polishing continues until the surfaces are very smooth.

The principal colors used in pata-chitra painting are white, black, red, yellow, blue, and ochre. Natural colors only were used up through the middle of the twentieth century. Since then synthetic colors have sometimes been used along with natural colors. The medium used to apply colors to the cloth is the gum or resin prepared from the kaintha fruit. Colors in their powdered form are blended with a little water to form a paste, then are mixed with the kaintha gum. The pigmented kaintha gum is diluted from time to time with water before the pigment is applied to the surface of the cloth. The brushes used to apply the paint are prepared from plant fibers or animal hair. In recent years, these brushes are sometimes purchased from supply stores.