The Feminine World of Pābūjī Kī Phaṛ: A Zine

Abstract

This zine accompanies Roop Ro Rajasthan, a computer game by Thorr Collective that reimagines the Pābūjī Kī Phaṛ, a traditional Rajasthani scroll-painting and performance tradition. The Phad (phaṛ) is approached not as a static painting but as a layered, non-linear field of unfolding stories, histories, and relationships. The zine examines how the women depicted in the Phad can be brought into the foreground through new forms of storytelling while remaining rooted in the tradition’s narrative world. The publication combines ethnographic writing, illustrations, character sheets, gameplay mechanics, and archival fragments into a format that invites reading as exploration rather than linear argument. By translating the Phad’s narrative logic into an exploratory interactive environment, the game creates new possibilities for encountering these women and their stories. By engaging with both the Phad tradition and its digital reimagining, the zine considers how cultural narratives are sustained through acts of transmission, reinterpretation, and transformation.