Kavad Craft Curio - Ramayan, Painted Wood Portable Shrine (Yellow, 11"). Kavad Craft is one of the most unique evocative crafts of Rajasthan. The ‘Kavad’ is a portable shrine with multiple folding doors, each of which is painted with representations of epics and myths. Traditionally, the Kavad served as a story telling medium by the Kavadia Bhatt, priests who narrated epics whilst simultaneously pointing to the appropriate illustrations on the ‘Kavad’. As the story progressed, the priest opened each new door until the entire box had been opened. The story ended with the last door that opened up to a 3-dimensional idol of the deity. The tradition of storytelling has existed in India since ancient times. The tradition provided an entertaining and educational method for relating religious scriptures of Hinduism- the epics like the Ramayana, Bhagavad Gita, Puranas and so on. This medium of pictorial story telling was traditionally the easiest way of communicating with the illiterate and the socially deprived classes.