Important Notice

RAJASTHAN
20TH CENTURY
Natural pigment on cloth
60 x 310 in (154.5 x 787 cm)

PROVENANCE
Property of an Esteemed Collector, Mumbai


Phads are extraordinarily large, horizontal scroll paintings which are used as a backdrop to illustrate scared oral epics in storytelling performances. Troops of travelling bhopas or bards use the colourful phads, unravelling them to illustrate scenes in night-long performances that celebrate Pabuji, Dev Narayan and Ramdevji, Rajasthani folk deities, who are believed to have lived around the 14th century.

Phad paintings from Rajasthan have remained fundamentally unchanged in their style, form and imagery through the centuries. This creates a narrative structure that is easily recognized and understandable as the troops travel from village to village engaging communities in their performances. The performance is enacted as a sacred ritual, which begins and ends with an aarti, and a lamp is held to illuminate the particular scene which is being orally transmitted by the storyteller.

Painted on bolts of cloth that are about 5 feet in width, the Pabuji phad is 17 feet long and the Dev Narayan phad is nearly 35 feet in length. The phad is an embodiment of the symbiotic relationship between the artist who makes the visuals and the bard who orates the words, literally enlightening the audience with his storytelling which harkens back to the grand epics.

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