A temple that travels
In a village without a shrine to Pabuji, the bhopa brings one with him, rolled up on his shoulder. When he unrolls it after dark, the hero arrives.
More than a painting: for the bhopa and his audience, the phad is the god's own presence. It is treated with the reverence of a shrine, not hung as decoration.
Called for a reason: families and villages invite a bhopa when a camel or cow falls ill, to give thanks for good fortune or to fulfil a vow made to the hero.
Facts to know
- Performed
- After dark, often through the night
- Performers
- The bhopa and his wife, the bhopi
- Music
- The ravanhatha, a bowed fiddle
- Purpose
- Devotion, healing, fulfilling a vow
- Called
- Phad baanchna, reading the phad
- After dark: the phad is unrolled only after sunset, and the performance can run until dawn. In the old days a full epic took several nights.
- Reading the phad: the performance is called phad baanchna, reading the phad, because the bhopa moves from scene to scene as a reader moves through a book.
- Village theatre: before cinema and television, the bhopa's night was drama, sermon, news and music at once, and people walked from neighbouring villages to hear it.
- Still alive, just: a few bhopas still perform in the villages of Marwar and Mewar, and more at festivals. Hearing one is one of the rarest pleasures in Rajasthan.
- A shared inheritance: the same nights were once known across Marwar and Mewar, and older Rajasthanis of every background often remember a bhopa visiting their village in childhood.
The bhopa, the bhopi and the lamp
Watch the woman with the lamp. She decides where you look, and when the story moves on.
The bhopa: a priest-singer devoted to a folk hero-god. He sings, recites and dances the epic, often wearing a long red or saffron robe, a turban and bells on his ankles.
The bhopi: his wife, who holds a small oil lamp up to each scene of the phad as the story reaches it, and sings some of the verses herself.
- Call and answer: the bhopa sings a passage, the bhopi takes it up, and he explains it in speech before singing on. The rhythm is hypnotic by midnight.
- The dance: at the high points, battles and weddings, the bhopa dances, spinning so that his robe flares and his ankle bells ring.
- A family calling: the role usually passes within families, and children grow up learning the verses by heart from their parents.
- Who they serve: Pabuji's bhopas are closely linked to the Raika and Rabari camel herders, whose animals the hero protects. Our page on the Rabari herders tells their story.
Local tip
Sit on the ground, close to the phad and to one side. You will see the lamp move across the painted scenes, and you will feel the floor shake when the bhopa dances.
The ravanhatha, the bhopa's fiddle
You have probably already heard one: an old man playing a simple fiddle outside a fort gate, its sound thin, sweet and much older than the fort behind him.
What it is: a bowed fiddle with a body of coconut shell or gourd covered in skin, a bamboo neck and a few strings, played with a bow hung with small bells.
The bells: as the bhopa bows, the bells on the bow jingle, so one instrument gives both melody and rhythm.
- The name: it is linked by legend to Ravana, the king of Lanka, who is said to have played it. Many consider it one of the oldest bowed instruments in India.
- Pabuji's instrument: Pabuji's bhopas sing to the ravanhatha. Devnarayan's bhopas more often play the jantar, a stick zither with two gourd resonators.
- Outside the forts: players at the gates of Mehrangarh, Amber and other forts usually play folk tunes on it. Some are from bhopa families. Stop, listen and pay them.
- More music: our page on folk music and dance introduces the desert's other instruments, from the kamaicha to the khartal.
Pabuji, the hero who kept his word
Pabuji left his own wedding halfway through the rounds of the sacred fire. A promise was worth more to him than a bride, and that is why Rajasthan still sings about him.
The legend: a Rathore Rajput of Marwar who borrowed a fine black mare, Kesar Kalmi, from Deval, a Charan woman, promising to protect her herds in return.
The wedding: when raiders drove off Deval's animals during his wedding, Pabuji left the ceremony to keep his word. Most tellings speak of cattle, and some of camels.
Facts to know
- Who
- A Rathore Rajput hero of Marwar
- When
- Usually placed in the fourteenth century
- Home
- Kolu, in the Jodhpur region
- His mare
- Kesar Kalmi, the black mare
- Protector of
- Camels and those who herd them
- The battle: he recovered the herd but died fighting with his companions. His bride is said to have followed him in death.
- The camels: the epic also tells how Pabuji brought the first camels to Rajasthan, which is why the Raika and Rabari herders revere him as their protector.
- His shrine: his main temple is at Kolu in the Jodhpur region, and small shrines to him stand in villages across Marwar.
- Legend and history: we tell this as the epic tells it. Historians place a real Pabuji in medieval Marwar, but the stories grew in the singing. Our Marwar Festival page lists the other heroes of the region.
- Camel country: our piece on the camels of Rajasthan explains why a camel-saving god matters so much in the desert.
Devnarayan, and the longest phad
If Pabuji's phad is a short novel, Devnarayan's is an epic in several volumes. Unrolled, it can stretch across a whole village square.
Who he is: a hero-god revered above all by the Gurjar herding community of central and eastern Rajasthan, and worshipped as a form of Vishnu.
The story: a long epic of his family, the Bagaravat brothers, their feuds and battles, and the birth and deeds of Devnarayan himself.
- The scroll: Devnarayan's phad is usually about twice the length of Pabuji's, around thirty feet, crowded with hundreds of figures.
- The music: his bhopas often play the jantar, and the singing has its own tunes and rhythm.
- His temples: shrines to Devnarayan are common in the villages of Bhilwara, Ajmer and the surrounding districts. Our guide to faith and temples in Rajasthan explains the folk deities.
- On a stamp: a section of a Devnarayan phad painted by Shree Lal Joshi appeared on an Indian postage stamp in 1992.
A night before the phad, hour by hour
Nobody hands you a programme at a phad reading. This is roughly how the nights we have sat through unfold.
Dusk, the unrolling
- Setting up: the bhopa ties the phad between two poles or along a wall, facing the open ground where the audience will sit.
- The first offering: a lamp is lit and incense burned before the hero, and the family who invited the bhopa make their offering.
Early evening, the invocation
- Calling the hero: the bhopa begins with songs calling on the god, tuning the ravanhatha as the crowd gathers and children push to the front.
- The bhopi lifts the lamp: the first scenes are lit one by one, and the story begins.
Midnight, the battles
- The high points: the raid, the chase and the battle bring the dancing, the ankle bells and the loudest singing.
- Tea and talk: there are pauses for tea, jokes and explanations in plain speech, which keep the audience awake.
Before dawn, the ending
- The hero's death: the last scenes are sung slowly, and many in the audience are moved, even though they know the story.
- Rolling up: the phad is rolled carefully before sunrise, and the god leaves with the bhopa.
How to read a phad
At first sight a phad is a crowd. Give it ten minutes with these clues, and it becomes a map of a story.
Find the hero
- Biggest and central: the hero-god is painted larger than anyone else, usually near the centre, often on horseback or seated in his court.
- Size means rank: in a phad, importance decides size, not distance. Gods and heroes are large, servants and enemies small.
Read the scenes as places
- No single direction: the scenes are arranged by place rather than by strict time, so the bhopa jumps between them as the story moves.
- Courts and battles: look for the hero's court, the wedding, the raid, the chase and the final battle, each in its own part of the cloth.
Look at the faces
- Profile: figures are drawn in profile, with large eyes. In a meeting, faces turn towards each other.
- The eyes: the painter paints the eyes of the hero last, which many families treat as the moment the phad comes alive.
Read the colours
- Bold and flat: yellow, orange, red, green, blue and black, laid in flat areas with strong black outlines.
- Meaning in colour: red is often used for the hero's robes and for important figures, green for trees and the land, blue for water.
Find the animals
- Horses and camels: Pabuji's black mare and the camels of his story are everywhere. Children love counting them.
- Herds: rows of cows or camels at the edges show the wealth being protected, and remind you who the audience was.
Local tip
Ask the bhopa or the painter to point to the scene where the hero leaves his wedding. Once you have found it, the rest of the phad falls into place around it.
How a phad is painted
In a painter's house in Bhilwara, a new phad lies across the floor of the whole front room, and the family steps around it all day as carefully as around a sleeping child.
The painters
- Joshi families: phads are painted by Joshi families of Shahpura and Bhilwara, who have held the tradition for generations. Our page on block printing and crafts mentions them.
- Shree Lal Joshi: the best-known phad painter of the twentieth century, from the Joshi lineage, founded a school in Bhilwara in 1960 to teach the art beyond the family.
Preparing the cloth
- Starched cotton: hand-woven cotton is stiffened with a paste of starch and burnished smooth with a stone, so that fine lines will hold.
- The drawing: the master lays out the composition in a pale colour, then draws the outlines with a fine brush.
Colour by colour
One colour at a time: each colour is laid in all its places across the cloth before the next is begun, starting with the lightest.
- Natural pigments: traditional painters ground mineral and plant colours and bound them with gum. Many still do for important work.
- The outline last: the black outlines go on at the end, sharpening every figure.
Opening the eyes
- The final touch: the pupils of the hero are painted last, at an auspicious time, and from that moment the phad is ready to be worshipped.
- Commissioned by the bhopa: a performing phad was ordered by a bhopa from a painter, and its painting was itself a sacred act.
When a phad grows old
A phad is never thrown away. When it is too worn to perform, it is cooled.
Cooling the phad: a phad that is torn or faded beyond use is retired with ceremony, often by immersing it in the sacred lake at Pushkar or in a river. The custom is called cooling it.
A new one: the bhopa then commissions a new phad, and the god moves from the old cloth to the new.
- Why old phads are rare: because performing phads were cooled when worn out, very old ones survive mostly in museums and private collections.
- Pushkar's lake: our page on Pushkar Lake and its ghats explains why the lake holds such importance.
- Buying old pieces: be careful with anything sold as an old performing phad. Objects over a hundred years old count as antiquities and generally cannot leave India.
Where to see a phad performed, and where to buy one
You cannot book a bhopa like a concert. With patience and the right friends, you can sometimes sit in on a night that has not changed in centuries.
At festivals
- Jodhpur: bhopas perform at the Rajasthan International Folk Festival at Mehrangarh in October and at the Marwar Festival around the same full moon.
- The fairs: at the Pushkar Camel Fair and village fairs across Marwar, bhopas sometimes set up their phads for anyone who stops.
In the villages
- With our guides: we sometimes learn of a performance in a herding village near Jodhpur or in Godwar and take guests quietly, if the family welcomes visitors.
- A private reading: with notice, we can invite a bhopa family to perform a short reading of the phad in a courtyard, paid directly and fairly.
Bhilwara and Shahpura, the painters
Where: in Bhilwara district, between Chittorgarh and Ajmer, a long but rewarding day trip.
- What: studio visits with Joshi painters, who show finished phads, work in progress and how the colours are ground.
- Where to stay nearby: Castle Bijaipur near Chittorgarh makes a calm base for this corner of Mewar.
Buying a phad
Small phads: painters now make small phads and single scenes for collectors, a lovely way to own the art. Buy from the painter if you can.
- Prints and copies: many phads in shops are printed or hastily painted. Look for crisp hand-drawn outlines and colour that sits slightly raised on the cloth.
- Honest shopping: our shopping guide explains how we choose shops, and our guides never take commissions.
Cousins of the phad
Rajasthan has always told its stories with pictures that unroll, open or dance. The phad belongs to a whole family of travelling storytellers.
Kathputli: the string puppets of the Bhat puppeteers, who perform the ballad of Amar Singh Rathore. Our piece on kathputli puppets tells their story.
Kavad: painted wooden shrines with folding doors made in Bassi near Chittorgarh, opened panel by panel as a storyteller tells tales of the gods.
- The desert singers: the Manganiyars sing the deeds of their patrons' ancestors, a living history in song. Our piece on Manganiyar music explains how.
- Painted walls: the murals of Bundi and the frescoes of Shekhawati tell the same kinds of stories on palace and haveli walls. Our piece on Bundi murals shows how to read them.
- Miniature painting: the court painters worked small and fine where the phad painters worked large and bold. Our miniature painting page compares them.
Watching with respect
A phad reading is worship before it is performance. A few small courtesies make you a welcome guest.
Shoes off: near the phad, as you would in a shrine. Sit on the ground with the villagers.
Never step over the cloth: and never touch the painted surface. The phad is the god's presence.
- Ask before photographing: and never use a flash on the phad or in the performers' faces.
- Offer, if others do: villagers often leave a small offering of money or grain before the phad. Your guide will show you how.
- Pay the bhopa properly: for a private reading the fee is agreed beforehand and paid directly. A gift at the end is customary.
- Stay quiet: the audience joins in at some points, but most of the night is listening. Our temple etiquette guide covers the basics.
- Stay for a while: leaving after ten minutes is fine at a festival, but at a village reading try to stay through at least one full episode. The bhopa will notice, and so will the village.
Fitting a phad into your journey
The phad suits travellers who are curious about how villages kept their faith and history alive. Plan a little, and be ready for luck.
In October: come for the folk festival in Jodhpur, where bhopas often perform. Our Rajasthan in October guide covers the month.
- On a craft journey: add a day with the painters of Bhilwara to our textile and craft trail.
- Off the beaten track: our offbeat Rajasthan journey through Bundi and Chittorgarh passes close to the painters' towns.
- In Marwar: a stay at a village fort such as Rohet Garh, near the herding villages, gives the best chance of hearing a bhopa among the people he sings for.