The Chitrakathis, a nomadic community of storytellers, were once found all over Maharashtra and some parts of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Until quite recently they would travel from village to village, unpack their pothi or bundle of rectangular paintings, and narrate myths and legends from the epics, folklore and local legends preserved in their oral tradition.

The painted narratives or Chitrakatha now mainly from Pinguli, Maharashtra, are executed in rectangular panels, generally pasted back-to-back on both sides. They are held up for the audience by means of a bamboo stick and used as aids to narration of legends to the accompaniment of music and songs. There is no clear demarcation of foreground or background and the figures seem to converge and superimpose in a style characteristic of these paintings.