Rajasthan — the desert state of western India — is known as much for its valorous princely heritage as for its colourful folk traditions. From this land comes the style of folk painting called Phad, and these scrolls date back approximately to a thousand years. This art was and continues to be part of elaborate performances by minstrels that travel across the state performing folk epics. The paintings provide the backdrop against which song, dance and narration are used for storytelling as a mode of entertainment for the desert folk.
What’s the story?The name Phad is derived from the long, folded piece of hand-woven, coarse cloth on which the artist paints his story. Phads most popularly depict the story of the local heroic gods — Pabuji and Devnarayanji, believed to be incarnations of Vishnu and Lakshmana, besides Rama, Krishna, Buddha and Mahavira. Traditionally, priest-singers or Bhopas carry the Phads with them to use as portable shrines of these folk deities. Each painting depicts a different episode in the story. A series of these paintings represent a folk narrative of an epic through a very specific style of representation filled with figures and pictorial incidents. They are unfurled only after sundown, usually for an all- night performance in what can be called the village commons.
Every available inch of the cloth is filled with figures. While the figures are harmoniously distributed all over the cloth, the size and scale of a figure depends on the social status of the character it represents and the significance of its role in the story. Another interesting feature is that the figures are always painted facing each other instead of the audience.
The artist prepares a mixture of wheat or rice flour, which, when cooked with water, turns into a thick paste. He then applies this paste along with gum on the cloth. The cloth is stretched and dried under the hot desert sun and then rubbed with a stone implement to make it smooth. The cloth is now ready to be used as a canvas. Phads are painted with vegetable colours prepared from gum, powdered earthen colours, water and indigo (obtained from a plant).
The painting is started with the ritual offering of a coconut to Saraswati (the Hindu god of learning and fine arts). The entire scroll is divided into a number of sections and a rough sketch is drawn out.
The painter then starts using colours in layers from lighter to darker shades — orange for limbs, yellow for ornaments and clothing, green for vegetation, red for royal clothing, blue for water and so on.
