A backdrop for a living child
At Nathdwara, Shrinathji is cared for as a seven-year-old Krishna, woken, dressed, fed and put to bed through the day. His temple is called a haveli, a household, and like any loving household it decorates the child's room for the season.
What it is: the large painted cloth that hangs behind the image, the pichwai, from pichh, behind, and wai, hanging.
- Where
- Nathdwara, about an hour north of Udaipur
- The word
- From pichh, behind, and wai, hanging
- Tradition
- Pushtimarg, founded by Vallabhacharya
- Shrinathji arrived
- 1672, from Govardhan
- Protector
- Maharana Raj Singh of Mewar
- What it shows: cool lotus ponds in May, rain clouds and peacocks in the monsoon, or Krishna dancing with the gopis under the full moon of autumn.
- Everything changes together: the pichwai, the clothes, the jewels and the food, so that each darshan feels like a scene from Krishna's childhood.
- Whose tradition: Pushtimarg, the path of grace founded by Vallabhacharya around the end of the fifteenth century.
- How it came to Mewar: with Shrinathji himself, brought from Govardhan and installed at Nathdwara in 1672 under the protection of Maharana Raj Singh.
- Painters followed the god: over three centuries a painting community grew up in the lanes around the temple.
- Who they painted for: the haveli itself, the many other Pushtimarg temples of Gujarat, Rajasthan and Mumbai, and devout families who keep a small shrine at home.
Between two worlds, and beyond the temple
Its miniature side: pichwai shares the fine line, flat colour and side-profile faces of the Rajput miniature schools of Mewar.
Its temple side: it has the scale and purpose of a temple hanging.
- A fixed language: every element in a pichwai means something to the devotee. Learn a little of that language and a painting that first looks decorative becomes a story you can read.
- A world market: collectors, designers and hotels across the world now commission pichwai, and the demand has kept the painters' lanes busy.
- The catch: it has also filled shops with prints.
- Why we go to the painters: you see the real thing made, and meet the people making it.
The pichwai calendar
Summer, the lotus pond
Keeping the child cool: in the hottest months the temple's care turns to cooling Shrinathji.
- What you see: great ponds of lotus flowers and leaves, often with no figures at all, or with cows resting in the shade and pavilions over water.
- Why guests fall for it: lotus pichwai are among the most beautiful and the most popular with collectors, and the piece most guests fall for first.
The monsoon, clouds and peacocks
- What you see: dark clouds, falling rain, peacocks dancing on the rooftops and the green of Braj in the wet season.
- Swings: for the festivals of Sawan, when Radha and Krishna are swung in a decorated cradle.
Janmashtami and Nandotsav
When: Krishna's birthday, in August or September, and the joyful day after it, when Nanda celebrates his son's birth.
- What you see: the birth, the celebration in Gokul and the cowherds dancing.
- In town: Nathdwara is packed for these days, and the painters are busy for weeks before.
Sharad Purnima, the dance by moonlight
The night of the raas: the full moon of autumn, when Krishna dances in a circle with the gopis.
- What you see: deep blues and silvers, the gopis in a ring and a Krishna beside each one, under a huge white moon.
- Why it matters: some of the most complex pichwai to paint, and some of the most moving.
Annakut and the cows of Gopashtami
Annakut: after Diwali, the mountain of food offered in memory of Krishna lifting Govardhan hill. Its pichwai show the great heap of offerings before Shrinathji.
- Gopashtami: a little later, honouring the day Krishna first took the cows out to graze.
- What you see: herds of cows, white, red and dappled, each with a decorated hump and flank.
Spring and Holi
When: the weeks before Holi.
- What you see: spring flowers, mango blossom, coloured powder thrown by the gopis and Krishna playing among them.
- At home: cheerful, busy pictures that suit a family home beautifully.
How a pichwai is made
- Ground
- Hand-woven cotton, starched and burnished
- Small pieces
- Handmade paper
- Colours
- Mineral and natural, ground by hand
- Gold
- Leaf or paint, burnished
- Painted last
- The faces, by the master
- Time
- Days for a small study, months for a large piece
Preparing the cloth
The cloth: traditional pichwai are painted on hand-woven cotton.
- Stiffening: it is washed and stiffened with a starch paste.
- Burnishing: then rubbed smooth with a stone, so the surface is tight and fine enough to take a single-hair line.
- On paper: smaller pieces may be painted on handmade paper, prepared in the same careful way.
The first drawing
Laying out: the master sets out the composition, often with charcoal or a pale wash of colour, then fixes the outlines with a fine brush.
- Family models: many compositions follow established models, passed down in the painting families as drawings and stencils, so that Shrinathji's pose and proportions are always right.
- The real skill: the line, which must be confident and unbroken.
Grinding the colours
By hand: traditional painters grind mineral and natural pigments on a flat stone with water and a binding gum, sometimes for hours, until the colour is silky.
- The bowls: ask a painter to show you his colours and he will open a row of small bowls: reds, yellows, greens, a deep blue and the white that gives the cows their glow.
- Honest about paint: some studios now also use good ready-made paints, and an honest painter will tell you which.
Filling, layering and gold
In thin layers: flat areas first, then shading, then pattern.
- Division of labour: apprentices often fill the large areas, while senior painters do the jewellery, textiles and fine detail.
- Real gold: as leaf or paint, for Shrinathji's ornaments and for borders in fine work, burnished until it shines.
The face, last of all
The master's work: the faces, and above all Krishna's lotus eye, are painted last, when the rest of the painting is done.
- A quiet ceremony: in some families this is a moment of ritual.
- Patience: a single eye can take a long sitting, with a brush of a few hairs. When it is finished, the painting is complete.
How to read a pichwai
Shrinathji's pose: his left arm is raised above his head, lifting Govardhan hill to shelter the people of Braj from the storm, and his right hand rests in a fist at his waist.
His face: his skin is dark, almost black, and his eyes are long and lotus-shaped.
The priests: many pichwai show the temple's priests and the Tilkayat, the hereditary head, attending Shrinathji with fans, lamps and offerings, so the painting is also a picture of the temple at worship.
- The gopis: the cowherd women of Braj stand in rows in profile, often in matching saris, their faces almost identical. They stand for the devotee's loving attention.
- The cows: patterned, decorated and gently individual, often with handprints in colour on their flanks, bells at their necks and calves at their sides.
- Why cows matter: they matter enormously in Krishna's story and in Nathdwara, where the temple keeps its own herd.
- The trees and the river: the kadamba tree, under which Krishna played his flute, and the Yamuna running blue at the foot of the painting place the scene firmly in Braj.
- The lotus: a symbol of purity and of the beauty of the god, and in the summer paintings almost the whole subject.
- The border: fine pichwai often have painted borders of flowers, small figures or scenes, and the quality of the border is a good test of the quality of the whole.
The painters of Nathdwara today
The family studio
Home and workshop: most studios are family homes, with the front room, or a room upstairs with good north light, as the workshop.
Inside: cloths spread on the floor, a low desk for small pieces and shelves of colour bowls and brushes.
- Who learns: fathers teach sons, and increasingly daughters, from childhood.
- The long apprenticeship: grinding colours and filling borders first, then cows and trees, and many years before anyone is trusted with the face of Shrinathji.
- Many hands: large commissions are shared between relatives and neighbours, each with a speciality, so a single pichwai can carry the work of several painters.
Who buys pichwai now
The temple and the faithful: work from the temple and the wider Pushtimarg community, for festivals and family shrines.
- Collectors and designers: much now comes from galleries and designers in Indian cities and abroad, who ask for larger pieces and new colour schemes.
- New subjects: sometimes themes drawn from pichwai, such as a single lotus pond or a herd of cows, without the figure of the god.
- Pride and caution: the new market has kept many families in the craft, and it has also brought pressure to work faster and cheaper.
Teaching, and where your money goes
Painters who teach: several have begun teaching, and a few run small schools or residencies for students from elsewhere.
- Paid directly: when we arrange a lesson, the money goes to the painter who teaches it.
- From the hand that made it: when you buy, you buy from the painter. That is the simplest thing a traveller can do to keep this art in the lanes where it was born.
Where we arrange a pichwai experience
Nathdwara, Chitron ki Gali
The street of paintings: in Chitron ki Gali and the painters' quarter around it near the temple, almost every doorway opens onto a studio.
- What you do: visit painting families we know, watch a large pichwai in progress, see the colours ground and talk with the painters about their work.
- How we time it: around a morning darshan with your guide, so you see the paintings hanging in their proper place and then see how they are made.
A lesson with a painter
Length: a half-day or full-day lesson, in Nathdwara or in Udaipur.
- What you do: prepare a small piece of cloth or paper, learn to grind a colour, and paint a lotus or a cow under the master's eye.
- The point: nobody paints a Krishna on their first day. You come away understanding the patience behind every piece.
Udaipur, the painters of the old city
Mewar painters: Udaipur has its own community working in the Mewar miniature tradition, many of whom also paint pichwai.
- Where: a studio visit in the lanes near the Jagdish temple.
- Why choose it: a good alternative if the Nathdwara crowds are too much, and it pairs well with an afternoon at the City Palace.
Kishangarh and Deogarh, the miniature cousins
- Compare: the long-eyed Radha of Kishangarh and the bold court scenes of Deogarh show how differently Rajasthan's courts painted Krishna.
- Read more: our miniature painting page covers these schools and the studios where they are still practised.
Ahmedabad, for the great collection
- The Calico Museum: if you are continuing to Gujarat, the Calico Museum of Textiles in Ahmedabad holds an important collection of Pushtimarg paintings and temple textiles.
- Book ahead: visits are by advance booking and tightly organised, so we arrange them well before you arrive.
A morning in Nathdwara, the way we plan it
- Start
- Early, from Udaipur
- On the way
- Eklingji, for morning prayers
- Darshan
- Shringar or Rajbhog
- Phones and cameras
- Left in the car
- Allow
- A morning, or a full day with a lesson
Eklingji and the darshan
On the road: we leave Udaipur early and stop at Eklingji on the way, for its morning prayers.
- The darshan: your guide takes you to the Shringar or Rajbhog darshan, when Shrinathji is at his most splendid.
- Look hard: phones and cameras stay in the car, so notice the cloth behind the image, the colours of the clothes and the offerings.
Into Chitron ki Gali
The unrolling: in the studio, the painter unrolls finished pieces on the floor, one after another, and explains the festival each belongs to.
- Watch: a large piece in progress and the master at work on its detail.
- Ask anything: how long the cows took, why the gopis' saris match, how his father taught him.
- Children welcome: tea comes, and many painters keep small pieces of cloth and a brush for young visitors.
A lesson, or a purchase
- The lesson: if you have booked one, it begins here, or in the cooler afternoon back in Udaipur.
- Buying: this is the moment, with time to choose and no salesman in sight. We help with the conversation, and with packing and shipping if the piece is large.
The afternoon
Back to the lake: return to Udaipur for a late lunch by the water.
- Or north: continue to Rajsamand, Kankroli and Kumbhalgarh.
- Journeys with this morning: our Mewar Lakes and Temples and Sacred Rajasthan journeys both include it.
Buying a pichwai honestly
Spot the print: most cheap pichwai sold in shops and online are prints, sometimes touched up by hand.
Signs of hand-painting: tiny variations in line, colour layered with visible depth, and gold that catches the light differently from printed gold.
Turn it over: on a hand-painted cloth the paint usually shows faintly through, unevenly. A printed piece is either blank or uniformly coloured.
- Cheap pieces
- Usually prints, sometimes touched up
- Check
- The back of the cloth
- Price follows
- Size, detail and time
- Ask for
- A signature or note of the maker
- Antiques
- Rare, some subject to export rules
- Ask about pigments: natural and mineral colours are slower to use and cost more. Good painters will tell you honestly if they used modern paints, and many fine pieces do.
- Size and detail drive the price: a small lotus or cow study can be done in days, a large Sharad Purnima with dozens of gopis may take a team months.
- Buy from the painter: or from a studio we trust, and ask the painter to sign the back or give you a note of who made it and when.
- Roll, never fold: have large pieces rolled around a tube with soft paper between the layers. We can arrange shipping and explain the paperwork the shipper needs.
- Old pieces: antique pichwai are rare and valuable, and some are subject to export rules. If you are offered one, talk to us before you buy.
- Read more: our journal piece on pichwai paintings and our shopping guide go further, and our guides are never paid commission on anything you buy.
Living with a pichwai at home
Surprisingly robust: cloth pichwai were made to hang loosely and be changed often.
Keep from sun and damp: pigments and gold dislike both, so hang yours out of direct sun, on a wall that stays dry.
- Framing: ask for acid-free mounts and a little air between the painting and the glass.
- The temple way: many collectors hang cloth pieces from a padded rod, as the temple does, so the cloth can breathe.
- Storing: roll it, rather than folding it.
- Where to hang Shrinathji: many devout families think about this, and it is a kind gesture to keep him somewhere calm and respectful rather than in a bathroom or a corridor.
- Freer subjects: lotus ponds and cow studies look as good in a bedroom or a kitchen as anywhere.
Sacred art, and how to treat it
No photos in the temple: photography is forbidden inside the Shrinathji temple, and we follow the rule without exception.
Ask in the studios: most painters are happy for you to photograph finished pieces, but some prefer that works in progress, especially the faces of the god, are not photographed.
- Shoes off: take them off when you enter a home studio, as the family does.
- Mind the floor: avoid stepping over a painting spread out to work on.
- Fair pay: we pay painters directly for their time and their lessons, and never take a cut of what you buy.
- No pressure, no haggling to the bone: a fair price for a hand-painted pichwai keeps the next generation in the studio rather than in a factory.
- Read more: our page on travelling responsibly and our temple etiquette guide explain the rest.
When to come, and where to stay
October to March: the most comfortable time, with cool mornings in the lanes and warm, bright afternoons.
Crowds: Nathdwara is busy on weekends and in school holidays all year.
- Best time
- October to March
- Calmest
- An ordinary weekday
- Busiest
- Weekends, school holidays, Janmashtami, Annakut
- Base
- Udaipur, an hour away
- Hill palace stay
- RAAS Devigarh, Delwara
- The great festivals: Janmashtami in the monsoon and Annakut after Diwali are extraordinary but very crowded, and the painters are rushed in the weeks before them.
- For a calm studio visit: choose an ordinary weekday. For festival energy, come for a festival and save the studio for the day after.
- Stay by the lake: most guests visit from Udaipur, and hotels such as the Taj Lake Palace and The Oberoi Udaivilas are a lovely contrast after the crowds.
- Stay in the hills: RAAS Devigarh, in an eighteenth-century hill palace at Delwara between Udaipur and Nathdwara, is the most stylish base for this corner of Mewar.
Who will love it
Lovers of painting, textiles or design: you will see a living art made by hand.
The curious about faith: few places show so clearly how devotion is expressed in art.
- Gift and souvenir hunters: you will find something beautiful to take home with a real story behind it.
- Families: children are often fascinated by the cows in the studios.
- Collectors and interior designers: it is the best possible place to commission a piece.
- If crowds or temple rules make you uneasy: the studio visit itself is calm and can be done without the darshan.
- If you are short of time: a studio visit in Udaipur's old city gives a taste of the art without the drive. Either way, we plan it around you.