The Bhopa people are the priest-singers of the folk deities in the state of Rajasthan, India. They perform in front of a scroll, known as (par in the Rajasthani language) that depicts the episodes of the narrative of the folk deity and functions as a portable temple. The Bhopas carry this phad traditionally, and are invited by villagers to perform in their localities during times of sickness and misfortune. Traditionally, the are kept rolled in transit. After reaching a village or town, the Bhopas erect the s between two poles in a suitable public place shortly after nightfall. The performance
The Bhopa people are the priest-singers of the folk deities in the state of Rajasthan, India. They perform in front of a scroll, known as (par in the Rajasthani language) that depicts the episodes of the narrative of the folk deity and functions as a portable temple. The Bhopas carry this phad traditionally, and are invited by villagers to perform in their localities during times of sickness and misfortune. Traditionally, the are kept rolled in transit. After reaching a village or town, the Bhopas erect the s between two poles in a suitable public place shortly after nightfall. The performance goes on throughout the night and terminates only in early morning
==The phad vacnos (performances) by the Bhopas== Bhopas belong to a variety of castes. The epic narratives of the folk deities are told by the Bhopas during the (night-wakes). The purpose of these are to evoke the (presence) of the folk deities. The sequence which a phad vacno (performance) follows can be summarized as follows: Purificatory rites are carried out before setting up the phad, which include sweeping the ground beneath the phad clean and burning incense sticks. The phad is set by fastening the rope that runs through the red band sewn on at the top to wooden poles set at each end. The Bhopa wears the special costume, known as baga. Grains and money are offered for consecrating the phad. The deities, whose images are depicted at the top of the phad are invoked. The Bhopa begins prosimetric narration of the epical narrative which consists of verse sections, known as gavs and followed by prose sections known as arthavs (explanations). The gavs consist of a number of karis (couplets). The Bhopa points out each scene on the phad with a stick and narrates the episode. Donations are collected during frequent pauses for food, tea, tobacco or rest. The Bhopa blows a conch-shell, one blast after receiving each donation. The name of the donor is announced by the Bhopa. An arati for the deities and the characters on the phad is carried out at the end of the performance. Offerings are again made at the end of the performance, when the phad is rolled back again before sunrise.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).