Pichwais are decorative curtain cloths used as a background for religious images in a shrine. These can be brocaded, block printed, embroidered or worked in gold threads. In the simplest form, they can be secular in nature and are painted in huge quantities for sale to tourists. However, the pichwai developed when the Vallabhaichari sect created 24 iconographic renderings as a background for the Krishna image at Nathdwara. Each of these images was linked with a particular festival or celebration. While images from Nathdwara are instantly recognizable in the way Krishna is painted and in the decorative element that embellished the cloth, the traditional pichwai consists of starched handspun cloth, painted with vegetable and mineral colours. The format of the pichwai is static, if stylised, where even the natural elements… Click here to read more