Nathdwara Pichwai Painting Rajsamand Rajasthan

Nathdwara Pichwai painting is a sacred devotional art form centred on the Shrinathji temple at Nathdwara, Rajsamand district, Rajasthan, where large cloth paintings called Pichwai (meaning hung at the back) are used as decorated backdrops behind the Shrinathji idol during the eight annual festivals of the Pushtimarg Vaishnavism sect founded by Vallabhacharya. Each festival requires a specific Pichwai composition: the Hindola swing painting for the monsoon festival, the lotpot lotus pond for Shravan, the Gopashtami cattle painting for the autumn cattle celebration, and the illuminated Deepawali night scene. Pichwai paintings are executed on hand-prepared cotton cloth stretched on a wooden frame, using natural and mineral pigments in a palette of deep red, blue, yellow, and green with gold leaf detail for the Shrinathji figure at centre, and requiring precise adherence to the iconographic canon established by the Nathdwara temple tradition. Contemporary Pichwai artists produce both temple-use large formats and collector-market smaller works. The Nathdwara Pichwai holds GI status and master artists from the Jangid and Sharma communities are national award recipients.