Pabuji Ki Phad

Pabhuji Ki Phad
tribals
Affiliation	Hinduism
Abode	Rajasthan
Texts	Epic story of Pabuji
Region	Rajasthan

Pabuji Ki Phad is a religious scroll painting of folk deities, which is used for a musical rendition of the only surviving ancient traditional folk art form, Phad painting in the world of the epic of Pabuji, the Rathore Rajput chief.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

The Kulu village where Pabu was born, now has only two conventional but small temples within a courtyard, where Puja (worship) is offered to the Pabuji. This village was known as the "great village fortress of Kolu" and it included the shrine of goddess Daval. The deity has still not attained the status for universal worship through building of many other temples elsewhere. Hence, only small shrines and commemorative stones are found in and around Kolu. Another reason attributed to the inadequate representation in the form of many temples to Pabuji is that the Bhopas are semi-nomadic and a traveling group who are not rooted to one place where they could build a temple for daily worship. Rabaris, also a semi-nomadic tribe and who are cattle herders of the region also revere Pabuji and consider it as the "myth of their origin".^[7][8]

In villages of Rajasthan, Pabuji was considered an ascetic and hence his blessings were sought for veterinary services provided by his disciples, the Bhopas. He is also invoked to cure children possessed of spirits by driving away the

The epic story of Pabuji has been analysed by historians with respect to the other epic stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata and the conclusion drawn is that the Pabuji tradition is "one multilayered and collective narrative construction of different Rajasthani performers, transmitted in oral and written forms."^[9]

The Phad

The Phad canvas is usually of 15 by 15 feet (4.6 m × 4.6 m) sheet cloth, on which are painted (or sewn) miniature scenes depicting the life of Pabuji and his adventures.^[10][11]

The Phad or Par represents, in its painting, the court of Pabuji (as a historical true Rajput chief who sacrifices his life for protection of others), his palace and his divine character as an incarnation of

The Phad, from the time it is painted by the renowned painters of this art form, is treated with utmost reverence by the Bophas. They make daily offerings to the Phad. It is considered a hereditary possession and is passed on to one of their kin to continue the tradition. As the Phad gets worn or torn or becomes threadbare, a formal religious procedure is followed to decommission it. This procedure is called tandakarna in Hindi, which means to cool or remove its divine power. This is done by confining to the holy waters of the Ganges or Pushkar Lake.^[2]

Bhopas

The narrative usually held by the Bhopas in the backdrop of Rajasthani deserts, is narrated by the poet-singers as a structured rendition of the epic story, called the Pabuprakasa, glorifying Pabuji as a divine being. The rendering is highly "stylized and formulistic in its narration". The text, which has a number of episodes, belongs to two different types namely, the parvaros and the sayls. The narrative of Pabuji, in particular, is recorded in the Khyata of Muhato Nainasi, a text with the title Vata Pabujiri. The entire narration relates to Pabuji and his heroic deeds. This epic, a courtly religious poem invoking Pabuji has 4,000 lines. Its recitation, from start to the end, takes full five nights of 8 hours duration from dusk to dawn; it is rarely fully recited now. The present trend of narration has many intermissions for taking tea, singing devotional songs (

The narration of the epic is done in the jagarans (night-wakes) time to invoke the prakas, meaning the presence of the folk deities, in the Rajasthani dialect. The set sequence for the narration, which in local language, called the phad vacno or performance is in the following order.[2]^[15]

• Purification rites involving erecting of the Phad is preceded by sanctifying the site by cleaning the land below the Phad and lighting incense sticks. A small
  cowdung
  is lit in front of the Phad and then circled around the Phad of Phabuji.
• The procedure for stretching the Phad involves running a string through the red band stitched at the top and then tie the rope to wooden or bamboo posts at both ends.
• The bard narrating the epic, the Bhopa, is dressed in a costume called the baga. The Bhopa announces the start of the narration by blowing the Conch shell
• Devotees offer grains and money for consecrating the Phad
• The deities depicted on the Phad are then invoked.
• The narration of the epic story by the Bhopas is "prosimetric." The narration of verse sections is called gavs, which has a number of couplets known as karis. This is followed by the narration of the prose sections called arthavs (explanations). Each scene on the Phad is specifically shown with a wand by the Bhopas and then narrated
• Collection of monetary contributions is part of the frequent intermissions for food, tea, tobacco or rest. Every time a donation is received, the Bhopa makes the announcement by blowing a conch-shell and mentioning the name of the donor.
• At the conclusion of the performance, the Bhopas do an
  arati
  (offering of a lighted lamp for the deities) to the characters on the Phad, which is followed by another round of donations before the Phad is rolled up before dawn