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The Bhopa people are the priest-singers of the folk deities in the state of Rajasthan, India. They perform in front of a scroll, known as phad (par in the Rajasthani language) that depicts the episodes of the narrative of the folk deity and functions as a portable temple. The Bhopas carry this phad traditionally, and are invited by villagers to perform in their localities during times of sickness and misfortune. Traditionally, the phads are kept rolled in transit. After reaching a village or town, the Bhopas erect the phads between two poles in a suitable public place shortly after nightfall. The performance goes on throughout the night and terminates only in early morning [1]
Bhopas belong to a variety of castes. The epic narratives of the folk deities are told by the Bhopas during the jagarans (night-wakes). The purpose of these jagarans are to evoke the prakas (presence) of the folk deities. The sequence which a phad vacno (performance) follows can be summarized as follows: [2]
The Bhopa sings various episodes from the narrative of Pabuji and his wife known as Bhopi holds an oil lamp near the visual being described. The Bhopi also sings some parts of the episodes. Mohan Bhopa (who - till his demise in 2011 - performed along with his wife Batasi Bhopi) is a celebrated present-day singer-priest of Pabuji, covered by author and historian William Dalrymple in his famed book Nine Lives. After her husband's death, Batasi now performs with her eldest son Mahavir.
There are three different types of Bhopas of deity Devnarayan namely the temple Bhopas, the Jamat Bhopas and the Par Bhopas. The Jamat Bhopas of Deity Devnarayan can only be from Gurjar community as the jamat is related to Devji sect, however par Bhopas and temple Bhopas belong to different castes including Gurjars, Kumbhars and balais. [3] [4] During the performance, a jantar (a type of fretted veena with two resonators of gourd or wood) is played to accompany the songs. Usually there are two Bhopas who recite the epic, one is the main Bhopa, the Patavi, and the other is his assistant, the Diyala. When the Patavi Bhopa sings a particular episode of the epic, his junior partner, the Diyala Bhopa lights an oil lamp and illuminates the particular part of the phad, where the particular episode which is being sung is depicted. He also sings some parts of the episodes.
The folklore of India encompasses the folklore of the nation of India and the Indian subcontinent. India is an ethnically and religiously diverse country. Given this diversity, it is difficult to generalize the vast folklore of India as a unit.
This type of music originates from the Rajasthan, one of the states of India and home to several important centers of Indian musical development, including Udaipur, Jodhpur and Jaipur. The region's music shares similarities both with nearby areas of India and the other side of the border, in the Pakistani province of Sindh.
Cheriyal scroll painting is a stylized version of Nakashi art, rich in the local motifs peculiar to the Telangana. They are at present made only in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. The scrolls are painted in a narrative format, much like a film roll or a comic strip, depicting stories from Indian mythology, and intimately tied to the shorter stories from the Puranas and Epics. Earlier, these paintings were prevalent across Andhra, as also various other parts of the country, albeit flavoured with their distinct styles and other local peculiarities dictated by the local customs and traditions. In the same way, Cheriyal scrolls must have been popular across Telangana in earlier times, though with the advent of television, cinemas and computers it has been fenced into its last outpost, the Cheriyal town.
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. Bhopas of Pabusar are the bards and also priests who are the traditional narrators of this art form. The Phad is also spelt as "Par". This art form is popular in the Indian state of Rajasthan. Literally, 'Pabuji Ki Phad' translates into two versions namely, "The Screen of Pabuji or O, Read of Pabuji!. Pabuji is also known as "the Ascetic Deity of Sand Desert".
Shree Lal Joshi was an Indian Chippa caste artist of phad painting, a form of popular folk painting of Rajasthan.
Pabuji is a folk-deity of Rajasthan in India. Pabuji is worshiped in historical region of Rajputana.
Katha is an Indian style of religious storytelling, performances of which are a ritual event in Hinduism. It often involves priest-narrators who recite stories from Hindu religious texts, such as the Puranas, the Ramayana or Bhagavata Purana, followed by a commentary (Pravachan). Kathas sometimes take place in households, involving smaller stories related to the Vrat Katha genre. The didactic Satyanarayan and Ramayana kathas instill moral values by revealing the consequences of human action (karma).
Rajasthani literature is an tradition in Indian literature dating to the 2nd millennium, which includes literature written in the Rajasthani language. An early form of Rajasthani started developing in the 11th century from Saurseni Prakrit as Maru-Gurjar or Gurjar Apabhramsa. Early Rajasthani literature was usually written by Charans. Earlier Rajasthani was known as Charani or Dingal, which was close to Gujarati. Medieval Rajasthani literature was mostly heroic poetry mentioning the great kings and fighters of Rajasthan. Rabindra Nath Tagore, a Bengali polymath, once said, "The heroic sentiment which is the essence of every song and couplet of a Rajasthani is peculiar emotion of its own of which, however, the whole country may be proud". It is generally agreed that modern Rajasthani literature began with the works of Suryamal Misran, including the Vansa Bhaskara and the Vir Satsai. The Vansa Bhaskara contains accounts of the Rajput princes who ruled in what was then Rajputana, during the lifetime of the poet (1872–1952). The Vir Satsai is a collection of hundreds of couplets.
The culture of Rajasthan includes many artistic traditions that reflect the ancient Indian way of life. This historical state of India attracts tourists and vacationers with its rich culture, tradition, heritage and monuments.
Phad painting or phad is a style of religious scroll painting and folk painting, practiced in Rajasthan state of India. This style of painting is traditionally done on a long piece of cloth or canvas, known as phad. The narratives of the folk deities of Rajasthan, mostly of Pabuji and Devnarayan are depicted on the phadss. The Bhopas, the priest-singers traditionally carry the painted phads along with them and use these as the mobile temples of the folk deities, who are worshipped by the Rebari community of the region. The phads of Pabuji are normally about 15 feet (4.6 m) in length, while the phads of Devnarayan are normally about 30 feet long. Traditionally the phads are painted with vegetable colors.
Devnarayan is a folk deity from Rajasthan, India. He was an incarnation of Vishnu and he is worshipped mostly in Rajasthan and north-western Madhya Pradesh. According to tradition, he was born to Sri Savai Bhoj and Sadu mata on the seventh day of the bright half of the month of Maagh in the Hindu Calendar in Vikram Samvat 968 .According to one view historical Devnarayan belonged to 10th century of Vikram Samvat, according another view, he lived in between 1200-1400. The first view appears nearer to truth.
Rajasthani people or Rajasthanis are a group of Indo-Aryan peoples native to Rajasthan, a state in Northern India. Their language, Rajasthani, is a part of the western group of Indo-Aryan languages.
Dev Dham Jodhpuriya is a temple situated in the Tonk district of Rajasthan, India dedicated to the folk deity Devnarayan.
Nine Lives: In Search of the Sacred in Modern India is a 2009 travel book by William Dalrymple.
Devnarayan Ki Par or Devnarayan Ki Phad are cloth paintings which depict the legend of Devnarayan, a medieval hero venerated as a folk-deity. Traditionally, they are used to accompany a ritual in which the heroic deeds of Devnarayan are sung or recited by priests. Devnarayan is worshipped as an incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu, mostly in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. According to the legend, he was incarnated in Vikram Samvat in 968 as the son of Gurjar warrior Sawai Bhoj Bagaravat and his wife Saadu Maata Gurjari.
Apart from the architecture of Rajasthan, the most notable forms of the visual art of Rajasthan are architectural sculpture on Hindu and Jain temples in the medieval era, in painting illustrations to religious texts, beginning in the late medieval period, and post-Mughal miniature painting in the Early Modern period, where various different court schools developed, together known as Rajput painting. In both cases, Rajasthani art had many similarities to that of the neighbouring region of Gujarat, the two forming most of the region of "Western India", where artistic styles often developed together.
Bhāt is a "generic term" used to refer to an oral repository or bard in India. The majority of Bhats hail from Rajasthan and worked as genealogists for their patrons, however, they are viewed as mythographers. In India, the inception of Rajputization was followed by the emanation of two groups of bards with a group of them serving the society's influential communities and the other serving the communities with lower ranking in the social hierarchy.
Bhanwari Devi is a folk singer from Rajasthan, India. She belongs to the Bhopa community, and has gained wide recognition for her performances of traditional and folk music from Rajasthan.
Rawal is an Indian community from Rajasthan and Gujarat. They are known as priests of devi temples and perform a form of dance known as Rammat during the worship. They were well respected and patronised by the Charans.
Motisar is an Indian community from Rajasthan and Gujarat known for folk-poetry. They were well respected & patronised by the Charans.