Phad Paintings

Phad Paintings are a folk painting style from Rajasthan. Phad refers to a long piece of cloth, which contain the narratives of the folk deities of Rajasthan, such as Pabuji and Devnarayan. These Phads are carried by the Bhopas (priest-singers) so that they serve as the mobile temples of the folk deities. 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.

A series of these paintings represent a folk epic narrative and every available inch of the canvas is crowded with figures. 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. These paintings thus accommodate numerous episodes of the complex stories.