Phad Painting

Phad painting or phad is a style religious scroll painting and folk painting, practiced in Rajasthan state of India. This style of painting is traditionally done on a long piece of cloth or canvas, known as phad. The narratives of the folk deities of Rajasthan, mostly of Pabuji and Devnarayan are depicted on the phads. The Bhopas, the priest-singers traditionally carry the painted phads 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 phads of Pabuji are normally about 15 feet in length, while the phads of Devnarayan are normally about 30 feet long. Traditionally the phads are painted with vegetable colors.

Phad paintings are made on cloth or walls and most popularly depict the story of the local hero-gods — Pabuji & Devnarayanji. Each painting depicts a different episode and they are opened or unrolled only after sundown, in conjunction with an all night performance. This is possibly why these paintings are called Phad which means folds in local dialect. All Phad paintings have certain common features. Every available inch of the canvas is crowded with figures. Another similarity is flat construction of the pictorial space. While the figures are harmoniously distributed all over the area, the scale of figure depends on the social status of the character they represent and the roles they play in the story.

Another interesting feature is that the figures in the paintings always face each other instead of the viewer. These paintings in their traditional form are very wide to accommodate the numerous episodes of the complex stories. Some Phad painters are also experimenting with the ‘collage’ form for Phad paintings where while remaining true to the basic principles of the art form they combine various aspects of the art form to create a visually appealing modern painting. Phad sketches made with a single stroke of the pen while following the Phad form are also gaining popularity.

The phad is painted on thick canvas that is about 30 feet long and five feet wide and is prepared by members of the Joshi clan. The colour palette consists of bright orange, red, yellow, black, blue, green and brown, derived from stones and minerals. The colours are prepared by the women artisans while the preparation of the canvas through applications of starch and kheriya gond (indigenous glue) and ghotana (burnishing) is done by men.