MAY 2023 ARCH/WORLD ROOF PARTY

THURSDAY 25 May 2023 at 6 p.m.

at 6 rue Visconti by Lorraine Bertier

The Pabuji Epic, a Rajasthani epic. In Kolu, in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, there are the only two temples dedicated to Pabuji, a divine hero incarnated from a Hindu deity in the 14thᵉ century in the Rathore rajput clan. Shunned by the Brahmins, Pabuji is nevertheless worshipped by the nomadic Rebari herdsmen of tribal caste. "Only two temples" built, we should say, as a rich tradition of the portable temple, in the form of a painted narrative scroll, the pharò, has developed. If these nomadic shepherds, who even 30 years ago led their flocks through the Aravalli range and across the Thar Desert, could not come regularly to the hero's village to show their devotion, then the hero had to come to them. Thus the Bhopos, priest-musicians-storytellers-dancers, would go to meet them with their sacred pharò rolled up under their arm, and spend whole nights telling and praising the divine exploits of the hero before an electrified audience.