Phad painting or phad (;

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: ''Phad'', ) is a style of religious scroll painting and folk painting, practiced in

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; Literal translation, lit. 'Land of Kings') is a States and union territories of India, state in northwestern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the List of states and union territories of ...

state of

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. This style of painting is traditionally done on a long piece of cloth or canvas, known as '. The narratives of the folk deities of Rajasthan, mostly of

Pabuji Pabuji is a Folk religion, folk-deity of Rajasthan in India. Pabuji is worshiped in historical region of Rajputana. The Narrative of Pabuji The narrative of Pabuji is sung by the Bhopa poet-singers of Nayak (caste), Nayak community is based a ...

and

Devnarayan Devnarayan is a folk deity from Rajasthan, India. He was an incarnation of Vishnu and he is worshipped mostly in Rajasthan and north-western Madhya Pradesh. According to tradition, he was born to Sri Savai Bhoj and Sadu mata on the seventh day ...

are depicted on the ''s''. The

Bhopa The Bhopa people are the priest-singers of the folk deities in the state of Rajasthan, India. They perform in front of a scroll, known as (''par'' in the Rajasthani language) that depicts the episodes of the narrative of the folk deity and func ...

s, the priest-singers traditionally carry the painted ''s'' along with them and use these as the mobile temples of the folk deities, who are worshipped by the Rebari community of the region. The ''s'' of Pabuji are normally about in length, while the ''s'' of Devnarayan are normally about 30 feet long. Traditionally the ''s'' are painted with vegetable colors. Traditional examples of this art are

Devnarayan Ki Phad Devnarayan Ki Par or Devnarayan Ki Phad (Rajasthani:देवनारायण की फड़) are cloth paintings which depict the legend of Devnarayan, a medieval hero venerated as a folk-deity. Traditionally, they are used to accompany a ...

and

Pabuji Ki Phad Pabuji Ki Phad is a religious scroll painting of folk deities, which is used for a musical rendition of the only surviving ancient traditional folk art form, Phad painting in the world of the epic of Pabuji, the Rathore (Rajput clan), Rathore Raj ...

. This style was revolutionized by Shree Lal Joshi and Pradip Mukherjee about forty years ago. Mukherjee's modern version of these paintings are based on the stories of ''

Ramcharitmanas ''Ramcharitmanas'' ( deva, रामचरितमानस, rāmacaritamānasa), is an epic poem in the Awadhi language, composed by the 16th-century Indian bhakti poet Tulsidas (c. 1511–1623). It has many inspirations, the primary being t ...

'', ''

Gita Govinda The ''Gita Govinda'' (; IAST: ''gītagovindam'') is a work composed by the 12th-century Hindu poet, Jayadeva. It describes the relationship between Krishna, Radha and ''gopis'' (female cow herders) of Vrindavan. The ''Gita Govinda'' is organiz ...

'', ''

Kumārasambhava ''Kumārasambhavam'' ''( ) (transl. - "The Birth of Kumāra")'' is an epic poem by Kālidāsa. It is widely regarded as the finest work of Kalidasa as well as the greatest kāvya poem in Classical Sanskrit. The style of description of spring set ...

,'' ''

Bhagavad Gita The Bhagavad Gita (; ), often referred to as the Gita (), is a Hindu texts, Hindu scripture, dated to the second or first century BCE, which forms part of the Hindu epic, epic poem Mahabharata. The Gita is a synthesis of various strands of Ind ...

'' and ''

Hanuman Chalisa The ''Hanuman Chalisa'' (Hindi: हनुमान चालीसा) (Sanskrit: हनुमान् चालीसा) (; '' Forty chaupais on Hanuman'') is a Hindu devotional hymn ('' stotra'') in praise of Hanuman, and popularly recited ...

.'' The art of Phad painting was traditionally practiced exclusively by the Joshi community. However, in 1960, Shree Lal Joshi established a school called Joshi Kala Kendra to teach this art form to everyone. Today, the school is known as Chitrashala and is located in Bhilwara city, Rajasthan.

References

External links

A dedicated website on phad painting
Schools of Indian painting Rajasthani arts Rajasthani culture Indian painting Bhilwara district Painted fabrics

References

Further reading

External links