Kalyan Joshi

Kalyan Joshi

For 700 years, this one family from Bhilwara in Rajasthan, were the makers of “Phad” art. A Phad (literally, fold) was a mobile temple, between 15 and 30 ft long, a hand woven coarse cotton cloth that was starched and shone with moonstone,  commissioned by a Bhopa, or priest.. The story was always of Devnarayan or Pabuji, both folk deities. As the Bhopa narrated the story, singing it out to a rapt audience who watched the cloth unfold, his wife the Bhopi, danced the tale. Master Artist Kalyan took over the mantle of his father who started a school to open the art out to a wider world. He uses his art as a tool to narrate anything of social significance and to adapt it to other iconic Indian styles, creating his own interpretation.