---
title: "Raghurajpur Heritage Crafts Village: Odisha | Model Diplomat"
description: "Raghurajpur is Odisha's heritage crafts village near Puri, home to Pattachitra painters and the Gotipua dance. Why UPGS1 aspirants must know its GI-tagged arts."
url: "https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/glossary/raghurajpur"
---

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Model Diplomat Research Team · Last reviewed June 22, 2026

TL;DR

- Raghurajpur is a heritage crafts village in Puri district, Odisha, recognised as India's first heritage village in 2000 for its living tradition of Pattachitra painting.
- Why is Raghurajpur called India's first heritage village?
- What is the difference between Raghurajpur and Pattachitra?
- What is the connection between Raghurajpur and Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra?
- How does the Geographical Indication tag protect Raghurajpur's art?

[Civil Service & Diplomatic Exams](https://modeldiplomat.com/learn/civil-services/glossary)Updated June 22, 2026

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## Positions at a glance

### Supporters

Raghurajpur Heritage Crafts Village is a settlement of artisans in the Puri district of Odisha, situated roughly 14 kilometres from the temple town of Puri on the banks of the river Bhargavi. It was developed as a heritage village in 2000 through a collaborative project led by INTACH (the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage) with support from the American Express Foundation, becoming widely cited as the first such designated heritage crafts village in India. The recognition was not a statutory listing under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, but a heritage-conservation intervention that documented the village's architecture, its temples, and the unbroken practice of traditional crafts across nearly every household. The village is administratively notable for its connection to the Jagannath temple economy, since its painters historically supplied ritual art for the Rath Yatra and the anasara period when the deities are repainted.

### Opponents

The defining craft of Raghurajpur is Pattachitra, a cloth-based scroll painting tradition in which artisans, called chitrakaras, prepare a canvas (patta) by coating cotton cloth with a paste of tamarind seed and chalk, then burnishing it to a leathery smoothness. Natural pigments are extracted from minerals and organic sources—conch shell for white, hingula for red, lamp soot for black, and haritala for yellow—and bound with gum. The painter sketches mythological narratives, predominantly drawn from the Jagannath cult, the Dashavatara, and episodes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, before filling colour and finally outlining figures in fine brushwork. The completed painting is coated with lacquer for durability. Pattachitra received a Geographical Indication tag, registering Odisha as the source of this distinctive idiom and protecting it against imitation under the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act, 1999.

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Example

In 2000, INTACH, with support from the American Express Foundation, developed Raghurajpur as India's first heritage crafts village, documenting its Pattachitra households and temple architecture near Puri, Odisha.

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