Chitrakar (Devanagari: चित्रकार) is a caste within the Newar community of the Kathmandu Valley in Nepal. The Newar caste system is divided according to profession. Accordingly, Chitrakars were painters and mask makers.[1]
In Nepal Bhasa (the language of the Newar community), this caste is called "pun" (पुं).[2] or "puna".[3]
The literal translation of the word "chitrakar" from Sanskrit is ‘image maker’, where "chitrá" in Sanskrit means ‘an image‘’, and "kara" ‘the maker’.[4]
- ^ The Newar Caste System According to Hierarchical Position (Gurung, 2000:39)
- ^ von der Heide, Susanne (December 1997). "The Past in the Present: Cultural Development in the Kathmandu Valley and the Significance of the Chitrakars as Painters" (PDF). Changing Faces of Nepal - The Glory of Asia's Past. Ratna Pustak Bhandar for the UNESCO Division of Cultural Heritage and HimalAsia. Retrieved 24 June 2012. Page 13.
- ^ P. Pal, Art of Nepal: A Catalogue of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art Collection, University of California Press
- ^ Meaning of the word citrá-kara.
See the entry -kara in line 25-27, second column, on page 396 of the book Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary (1899), written by Monier Monier-Williams.
This "kara" is related (cognate) to the Sanskrit word "karma" (activity).
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