Phad (Pabuji ki Phad)

A general description of Phad painting:

Phad Paintings are a folk painting style from Rajasthan, India. These
paintings were and still are a part of an elaborate ritualistic song and
dance performance by folk balladeers that travel from village to village
performing folk epics. The paintings provide the backdrop against
which the songs, dances and narrations are used to create an evening
of magic and entertainment usually in the centre of the village.
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.

---"About Phad, http://www.phadchitrakari.com/aboutphad.htm, accessed on

August 28, 2014.

More general information on Phad: http://www.phadchitrakari.com/home.htm

Phad scrolls depict several stories. One of the most popular and celebrated
amongst these stories is the story of Pabuji, a fourteenth century Rathod prince.
The story combines myth, legend, and history. Several episodes from the story
are painted on the Phad which forms the backdrop to the performance and the
husband-wife performer duo (bhopa-bhopi) point to the episode on the scroll
while elaborating on it through a song and dance routine.
Both the painters and the performers learn their craft from the preceding
generation and pass on the skills to the next. The essay attached underneath
talks about the Pabuji story as well as the performer community attached to it. It
builds on an influential and early work on this performance form by John D.
Smith, a scholar of Sanskrit from Cambridge University (click here for a summary
of the epic by John D. Smith).
Pattachitra
The word pattachitra is a combination of two words (with Sanskrit roots) patta,
meaning cloth and chitra, meaning painting. Literally, the word therefore means
painting on a cloth. It is unclear how old this art form is. Extant records suggest
however, that artists (known as patuas) have been engaged in art of painting
pats (the painted scroll) for hundreds of years. The paint used in the paintings is
also indigenously produced using natural sources. Unlike the phad, pats are not
horizontal but are vertical. Episodes from local legends, folk, and mythic lores are
painted one below the other and then the painted scroll is rolled up.

The artists who paint the scrolls also double up as performers/storytellers,

narrating and expanding on the various episodes painted on the scrolls as they
roll it out. As opposed to phad, the art and craft of pattachitra seems to have kept
up with changing times and incorporated contemporary themes into its repertoire.
So much so, that local government agencies have adopted the pattachitra as a
means to spread social awareness about local self-governance, adult literacy,
and HIV-AIDS in remote areas.

Many scholars consider the pattachitra to be a pre-cursor to cinema (especially in

an Indian context). The episodes are revealed in a cinematic fashion (as the
accompanying video will illustrate) and because of the sing-song style of
narration adopted by the artist/performer.

The painting like the stories they represent, are freewheeling and it is not
uncommon to find several different versions of the same myth in two different
scrolls. Multiple styles of pattachitra exist in Eastern India, particularly in the
states of West Bengal, Jharkhand, and Orissa. For our purposes, however, we
will only be looking at the style seen in Medinipur, West Bengal.

One of the most popular mythic tales narrated using pats is that of the goddess
Manasa (patron deity of snakes) and Behula (a devout wife who through her
steadfast devotion managed to resuscitate her dead husband after Manasa's
wrath killed him). Here's a brief synopsis of the tale:

Manasamangal Kavya narrates a story how Manasa renewed

her worship in Bengal. It is the oldest of the Mangal-Kavya, a
group of Bengali Hindu religious texts. It was written
sometimes after 13th Century AD and it mentions other
indigenous deities of rural Bengal.
Chand Sadagar was a rich merchant. When Manasa
descended to Earth, she succeeded to convert new devotees,
but failed to convert Chand, an ardent Shiva and Chandika
devotee. Her collision with his resistance erupted in such
anger toward Chand that she finally destroyed all his sons
and left him ruined.
However, the stricken merchant still did not accept Manasa.
He rather decided to start a new life with the same attitude
and became a father of Lakhindar. Because of his fear of
Manasa he took all possible measures to prevent deadly
snakes from coming to his house, but Manasa, the Snake
Goddess, was cleverer. She asked two heavenly beings
(Apsaras) for help and persuaded them to be reborn as
human beings. One Apsara was born in the body of the
Chand's youngest son, Lakhindar, the other one as the
daughter (Behula) of Saha, a Chand's business partner.
Manasa knew that these two would change the Chand's
stubborn mind. This is how Behula came to life. Both Behula
and Lakhindar were devotees of Manasa.
Just as soon as Behula and Lakhindar went to bed on their
wedding night, Manasa slipped into the bedroom as a snake
and killed the Chand's youngest son. It was exceptionally
difficult for Behula both to see her husband dead and to
accept the knowledge of who intrigued this, but her love to
Manasa did not grow weaker.
The Lakhindar's body was not cremated because of a custom
that allowed the relatives to send anyone who died of
snakebite down the river on a raft. This custom was based on
a belief that such a person would miraculously come back to
life. Behula did not leave her husband alone and
accompanied him on the raft. They sailed for months and
passed a village after a village.
The dead and decomposed body must have looked ghastly.
Seeing Behula constantly praying to Manasa, villagers
thought she went crazy. The raft finally arrived at the place
where Neta, a Manasas helpmate, worked as a
washerwoman. When she heard the Behulas repetitive
prayers to Manasa, Neta used her magical powers and
channeled a communication with Manasa. Behula
participated in it too. The Manasa's only requirement for
bringing Lakhindar back to life was a Behula's agreement to
cooperate with her continuous conversion of Chand. When
Behula agreed, the Lakhindar's decaying corpse suddenly
underwent a complete rebirth and Lakhindar came back to
life.
Behula then told Chand everything about Manasa and
Lakhindar. Chand could not do anything else than to agree to
worship Manasa. However, when he visited her shrine, he
refused to look at the face of her idol. This gesture made
Manasa so happy that she resurrected all of the Chands sons
and restored their fortunes. The Mangal kavyas say the
worship of Manasa became even more popular after this.
Chand worshipped her with his left hand only because he
could not forgive her the pain she inflicted on him.

An informative website on pattachitra:

http://www.midnapore.in/festival/potmaya/pot-maya-naya-pingla.html

A patua sings the Manasa story: Manasa-Mangal pat

Same story, slightly different painting: Manasa-Mangal 2
Some more pat performance: Pat based on the Ramayana epic
An artist talks about Kolkata, the major Bengal metropolis in her song: Tale of
Kolkata
The same artist talks about the benefits of afforestation: Afforestation
And for laughs...: 9/11 scroll