Kavad Art Of Rajasthan: Traditional Storyboxes That Open Up To Tell Tales

A wooden box that tells a tale, that's Kavad art for you. The 500-year-old Kavad art form is one where each pathiya or a panel opens up to narrate a story. Opening it up is almost like flipping the pages of a book, as each scene and character reveals itself.

People from the Suthar community from the Bassi village in Rajasthan have been practicing this craft for generations and are resolute towards preserving the art form for many more years to come. The craft has spanned a long journey. From being a form of storytelling to being reduced to a showpiece that you can marvel for a moment in someone's drawing room.

What Is Kavad Art?

Kavad is a 500-year-old visual form of storytelling that comprises a brilliant, unhinged, colourful wooden shrine that is painted with narratives of Gods, local heroes, saints, and patrons. What appears as a box opens up to reveal the various panels also called pathiya, which are all painted with stories representing events from the mythological past. Depending upon the length of the stories, the box could have anywhere between eight to 16 panels. 

The shrines represent stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata among other stories. Atop the shrine, one will always find an image of Surya or the Sun God. Painted on the front door of the shrine are Jai and Vijay who are considered to be gatekeepers of Hindu deity's Vishnu’s abode.

Another feature is that the innermost part of the story box always has a beautiful painting of Hindu deities Rama, Sita and Lakshmana. The carpenter of Rajasthan, called Suthars, chisel and shape wood that finally takes the shape of the portable shrine. In the past, people of the Bhat community would carry this shrine from village to village to recite the tales painted on these shrine cupboards. They came to be called Kavadiya Bhat.

History And Origins Of The Kavad Art Form

The Kavad art that took off as a form of storytelling has now become a piece of art to be showcased in drawing rooms. The origin of the art form and the idea of a portable shrine goes back to the legend of Dashrath and Shravan Kumar. 

A devoted son, Shravan Kumar is believed to have carried his blind parents to various teerth yatras (pilgrimages) on his back. On one such trip, Kumar took a stop in a forest to quench his thirst. Dashrath, the father of the venerated Rama, was out on his hunting expeditions and assumed the rustle in the leaves created by Shravan Kumar to be that created by a tiger.

This led to the warrior king accidentally killing Shravan Kumar. He is believed to have made a wish that since his parents could not travel to the shrines, the shrines be brought to them. Ever since the concept of these portable shrines or kavads are believed to have started. 

In times when distances were huge and transport facilities limited, this became a way for people in villages to experience these shrines without actually visiting them. “It also became a way for people to be aware of stories that they would otherwise not know,” said 70-year-old Dwarka Prasad Jangid in an exclusive interview with Outlook Traveller. Jangid has been practicing the craft for over 50 years now. 

Making Kavad Art

The process of making Kavad is rather lengthy and intricate. It begins by cutting wood sourced from the Adusa plant and shaping it into panels. These structures are then coated with a white powder called khadia that prepares the base.

Khadia is made when khadia stone and resin is mixed in water, and then sieved through a cloth. Then, four to five coats of this is applied on the panels before it is coated in red. This acts as the background to the painting.

“This is followed by sketching the entire story on the various panels. When we fill colours, we follow a certain sequence. We begin with yellow, then skin, blue, green, pink, white, and then finally black,” said Satyanarayan Suthar, another kavad artist, in an exclusive interview with Outlook Traveller. He has been conferred with various district, state, and national awards in his 35-year journey with the Kavad art form. 

Finally the painted panels are coated to make them waterproof. These individual panels are then hinged together to give the kavad its true shape and form.

Modern Storytelling

As we live in an age dominated by social media, where most stories reach us through Instagram and WhatsApp, these story boxes are unfortunately becoming an obsolete medium of storytelling. In such evolving times, Kavad artists have taken up the task of evolving their stories, too. “We have started painting tales that are telling of the present times. These include environmental stories and those related to gender roles and patriarchy,” said Jangid. 

He recalls a story called "Meera Ki Kahani" that he painted on a 10-pathiya kavad that revolves around the "Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao" theme. “If we don't evolve and preserve our craft today, it will end up becoming a part of the forgotten past. We will not let that happen,” added Jangid.