Painting The Life Story of Gautam Buddha with Phad

Presented by Dharav High School, Jaipur as a part of Phad Se Padh initiative

Life of Gautam Buddha performed by the students of Dharav High School

Concept Note

One initiative that is helping to promote the use of art in education in India is the “Phad se Padh” program by Rooftop. This program aims to promote the use of Phad art, a traditional art form from Rajasthan, in schools as a means of promoting creative thinking and enhancing students’ understanding of history and culture. Phad art is a form of scroll painting that tells stories from Indian mythology and history, making it an ideal tool for teaching history and culture.

Rooftop collaborated with Dharav High School to implement the ‘Phad se Padh’ program, in which students created Phad art based on the topic of ‘Life Story of Gautam Buddha.’ Through this initiative, the students were able to deepen their appreciation for Indian culture and improve their creative thinking and problem-solving skills. The Phad created for the project was a 5x30ft scroll painting with 40 blocks of varying sizes featuring lyrics in both Hindi and English. An exhibition was organized in December at City Palace in Jaipur, with 15 schools participating and many prominent visitors, including Princess Gauravi Kumari, in attendance.

Teacher’s Experience

We had the chance to express the pupils’ artistic potential through the history festival “Phad se Padh.” The most remarkable aspect of the figures from the “Life of Gautam Buddha” was how their expressions were portrayed. The character’s side face is painted in traditional folk art. Yet, thought of merging folk and modern contemporary art to illustrate the subtle stance and posture of Buddha when he is serene and peaceful.

The “Phad se Padh” initiative is a prime example of art integration education.

Teacher Name: Neti Sharma

Student’s Experience

Knowing who we are and why we act the way we do requires studying history.

We selected this project to increase our knowledge of the historical era during the time of Buddha and his teachings. The project for active learning took our school 1.5 months to complete. Being Commercial Art majors, the entire process taught us about the methods utilised in Phad paintings and large-scale artwork. The spiritual experience of depicting events from Gautam Buddha’s life also made a lasting influence. From studying Rajasthani folk art and drawing inspiration from numerous works on Gautam Buddha to combining with modern art styles in Phad painting.

Student Name: Divija Singh

Credits

Executor: The Department of Art, Dharav High School

Mentors: Neti Sharma

Manisha Gupta

Artists: Divija Singh

Shivalika Poonia

Pradeepti Srivastava

Coordinator: Priyanka Choudhary

Ideation: Hina Suhel

Ballad: Jyotishmita Borah Goswami

Gathageet: Rachna Grover

Music: Amit David

Rishi Kumar Sharma

Dance: Rinku Vashishth

Brush support: Rashmi Tam,
Anuradha Maheshwari

Choir: Lavika Bachra, Anvita Sharma, Shakshi Tiwari, Aafka Patnaik, Mishthi Garg, Tejas Jyani, Prisha Singhal, Darsheel Singh, Kovid Sharma, Sanvi Mangal, Siya Suthar

Dance Troupe I: Avishi Verma, Bhavya Agarwal, Kunjal Agarwal, Aarnika Sharma, Priyanshi Bansal, Mithila Mawlia, Nandika Kaushik, Vaishnavi Singh, Kulsum Rawa, Deyanshi Rawal, Shashtha Khandelwal

Dance Troupe II: Aashi Pareek, Soumya Jain, Neeti Gothwal, Janvi Agarwal, Yutika Manish Soni, Ritwika Jangir