DESERT LEGEND

There is an entire social,political,cultural and economic history in the paintings, Singh tells us . Rajasthans rich bardic literature serves all strata of societythere are epics for kings,cattle herders and leatherworkers. But whats interesting is how phad has affected storytelling and how a symbiotic relationship sprung up centuries ago continues today, she adds.

Cattle heroes such as Pabuji,Dev Narayan (deity for cow herders) and Ramdevji (worshipped by the low-caste Meghwals and Regars) lived in Rajasthan between the 12th and 14th centuries. Each hero died rescuing his communitys cattle from a cattle robber and is thus remembered as a martyr,his story being kept alive. In some cases,the deceased hero is believed to have manifested himself or performed a miracle for somebody after his death,thus turning into somebody worth worshipping and eventually a god, says Singh, who chose to study phad scroll paintings when she was a student of art history in Baroda.

Since the worshippers were of a lower caste,they wanted their way of worshipping to be different from high-caste Hindus. Thats how the phads came in. The phads are made by Joshis,an artist clan that lives in Shahpura and Bhilwara in southeast Rajasthan. The Pabuji phad is a five-feet-high and 17-feet-long canvas depicting the life and times of the hero. Today,we are accustomed to visual narratives that use the monoscenic methoddepicting a single moment from the narrative within one frame. But the phad uses the narrative strategy used in pre-modern artan entire sequence of events is enclosed in one frame, says Singh.

Hence,to understand a phad,you need an interpreter. A singing bard called the Bhopa (a Pabuji Bhopa is from the Nayak,Thori or Bhil caste while a Dev Narayan bhopa is usually a Gujjar) explains the sequence of events in the heros life by performing with his wife,a Bhopi,and playing a fiddle called the ravanhattha. Rituals around the phad have been borrowed from Hinduism. The phad,for instance,is considered a mobile temple thats only only open for ritual performances. When its worn out,the phad is immersed in water,just as Hindus do with their idols. The performance of the epic is held at night,like the jagrata. The first stroke of the brush on the canvas is by a virgin Kumari girl. And the eye of the big central image,the presiding deity of the phad,is filled in during a ritual like the consecration of temple idols. The narrative tradition thus becomes a religious one and the folk tales sacred, says Singh,who has been active in promoting this dying art at prominent festivals in the country. The fascinating ritual has also drawn author William Dalrymple and he is believed to be working on a book on the Bhopas .

As ancient as it is,the phad has time and again been used for political aspiration. The phad and its epic emerge in the medieval period when different social groups in Rajasthan were still working out hierarchies. They were all vying for cattle,land and water. It was a struggle between equals and over the centuries,the identities have changed,with Rajputs consolidating their identity as a superior caste while Gujjars are at the bottom. But now,the sacred scroll is being used by Gujjars to cement their identity as low-caste and officially become a Scheduled Tribe. The tables have turned. Earlier,the phad incorporated rituals derived from Vaishnavism. This was used to showcase their social ambitions,their urge not to be considered low-caste. But now,to benefit from the ST status,Gujjars have begun to cite the phad as an example of their backwardness,of how they have pastoral gods and a holy scroll,instead of a temple and a text, says Singh.
From herds to holiness,it happens only in India.