Bengali rickshaw art is South Asia's most accessible folk illustration — untrained painters in cramped Howrah stalls hand-paint the rear backboard of every cycle-rickshaw with Durga slaying Mahishasura, a peacock on a Bollywood heroine, a tiger in saturated forest, a Tagore verse in flowing Bengali. The vocabulary descends from Kalighat patua scrolls and Battala woodblocks, filtered through god-poster calendar art.

Every panel is cheap synthetic enamel on plywood, finished in a day. Vermilion and turmeric form the foundational chord; thick brush-black outlines — the Kalighat hallmark — wrap every shape. The ethos: a backboard is a small temple, so paint it like one, even if only the rider behind sees it.