Kavad Artform

Communities practicing the artform:

Initially, the Kavad stories were interpreted on cloth. But, the cloth paintings got worn and torn and hence the kawadiyas shifted to wooden shrine boxes. The sutar community makes the wooden boxes from the mango and Selam trees with the help of simple carpenter tools.

The Kavad is a mobile story-telling device that sometimes serves as a temporary temple. It is created by combining the skills of carpentry, painting and narration. As separate professions, the carpenter is called a suthar, an artist is a chitrakar, and a story teller is a bhat. The Kavad makers combine the work of the carpenter and artist, while the Kavadia Bhats do the narration. The Kavad is made only in a village called Bassi, in Chittorgarh District of Rajasthan.