India's many folk art forms, steeped in tradition and history, have told tales through vivid visual depiction for millennia. While all of them have cultural significance, Phad painting from Rajasthan distinguishes out because of its distinctive origin, history, and efforts to be revived.

Phad's beginnings as a fusion of performance and visual art: - Phad is a 700-year-old tradition that has been handed down through one family's generations and has its roots in Shahpura, close to Bhilwara, Rajasthan. A specific kind of scroll painting known as phad tells in-depth religious tales about regional deities and gods. The Bhopas and Bhopis, priest-singers of the Rabari tribe, who would sing and perform tales of their regional deities, Devnarayanji (a reincarnation of Vishnu), and Pabuji (a local hero), carried these traditional paintings as roaming or mobile temples. After sunset, the Phad artwork would be unrolled or unfolded, and a performance would then take place in front of the villagers that would run well into the night.

Perhaps for this reason the paintings are referred to as "Phad," which in the local language means "fold."

The female priest (Bhopi) would sing and dance in accompaniment as the male priest (Bhopa) sang and narrated the story shown in the Phad painting. She would also use a lamp to shine a light on the corresponding area of the painting. In the performance, a two-string instrument known as the "ravanhatta" would be utilised.