Scroll paintings: patas and phads

Scroll paintings, on cloth, palm leaf or paper (called Pata, Pachedi or Phad), are made in Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west, and Odisha and Bengal in the east.

Bengal patas are vertical cloth scrolls, used by the patuas (or chitrakars) of Midnapore, Birbhum and Bankura. They travel to villages, unroll the scroll and sing its story, three or four stories each visit, for alms. They keep taking up new themes.

Puri patas (Odisha) show Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra in their different veshas (costumes), as well as Rasa paintings, Ansara patti (painted substitutes for the temple images) and Jatri patti (souvenirs for pilgrims). The cloth is coated with stone powder and tamarind-seed glue. The artist paints the borders first, then draws with the brush and fills in flat colours: white from conch shells, black from lamp black, yellow from haritali, red from hingal. Finally the painting is lacquered over a charcoal fire, to resist water and add sheen. On palm leaves (khar-taad), images are incised with a stylus and filled with ink.

Phads (Rajasthan) are long, horizontal cloth scrolls honouring bhomias: hero-deities like Pabuji, Dev Narayan and Ramdevji, who died protecting cattle. They are revered by the Rabaris, Gujjars and others around Bhilwara.

Bhopas (bards) unroll a phad and perform its story all night, with a lamp and a fiddle called the ravanahattha. The phads themselves are painted by the Joshis, once court painters. These are pictures that are sung.