ABSTRACT
Several of the tourists who visited Raghurajpur during my stay praised the 'beauty' and the 'peace' of the village. Some mentioned how lovely it was to see so many people engaged in 'colourful craft production'. A photographer wondered whether all villages in India would be like this 'having so many pictures'. How does this romantic image of Raghurajpur fit in with the craft producers' experiences of their lives? The number of tourists visiting Raghurajpur has steadily increased since 1965 when Prafulla Mahapatra gained his national award, and particularly so since 1987 when Raghurajpur was officially declared a 'Crafts Village'. What has this meant for the social relations in the village? We shall consider the relations amongst patta chitra painters in the village and in the district of Puri more generally, looking at their cooperation and occasional conflicts arising from their varying levels of success.
