=========== CULTURE ================= Craft: Kawad Location: Chittorgarh, Rajasthan Kawad (or kavad) art is a 500-year-old art tradition originally practiced by a group of Jangid Brahmins near Chittorgarh, Rajasthan. Artisan Dwarka Prasad Jangid’s family has been creating these art forms for generations. The kawad is a portable wooden temple containing multiple panels within a panel which unfold outwards on either side, to reveal a shrine in the center. A traditional kawad would typically be painted in red with 10 doors reciting Krishna’s and Rama’s stories, but these days they make very small kawads with “just” 6 doors too. The origin of the kawad art form is an interesting one. The Kawadia Bhatt people were bards who went from village to village reciting epic tales from Hindu mythology. Their wandering lifestyle made it difficult for them to have a permanent temple for worship. So they created these “shrine-cupboards,” which were carried on the shoulders of the Kawaadia Bhat men. The storytellers would open the panels of the kawad in the sequence of events in the narration. The recitation of the tales of Krishna, the Pandavas, Ram and Sita, through the kawads was instrumental in keeping these religious traditions alive in some of the remote parts of Rajasthan. The Kawadias have had to adapt to the changing times and interests of the twenty-first century. In the age of television entertainment and instant gratification, these portable temple-cupboards have begun to tell inspirational stories with a message. One particularly popular tale is of a rural girl whose parents aren’t interested in sending her to school. They do eventually though and she goes on to study abroad and eventually comes back to spearhead an educational movement in her village. Off late, the kawads also have stories from the Panchatantra, which do well.
Posted on: Fri, 27 Sep 2013 07:12:23 +0000
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