Hanuman Chalisa

The Hanuman Chalisa has 40 verses.

Nandu painted all 40.

Not on 40 pages. On one cloth.
Each verse a scene. Each scene a world.

Chalisa means forty. Forty verses written
by Tulsidas in the 16th century — a poet
who loved Hanuman so completely he wrote
his devotion into metre and gave it to
everyone who would ever need strength.

And people have needed it ever since.

The verses move through Hanuman's journey —
his birth in the mountains, his leap across
the ocean to Lanka, his unwavering service
to Ram. Not because he was told to.
Because love, when it is real, does not
need a reason.

He carried a mountain when a herb was needed.
He burned Lanka and walked through fire
without flinching. He is the god of those
who show up. Who do not perform.
Who simply come when they are called.

Nandu painted all of this.
Scene by scene. Verse by verse.
In deep reds and gold, in the Phad tradition
of Rajasthan — the art form that has always
told stories on cloth, carried from village
to village, sung under open skies.

This painting is that tradition.
Alive. Still moving.

Hand-painted by Nandu from Shahpura,
a village in Rajasthan. Mineral pigments
on natural cloth, in the Phad tradition.
No stencils. No reprints.
The hand that made this was living
when it made it.

—

Artist: Nandu
Gaanv: Shahpura, Rajasthan
4x4 feet. Cloth. Phad tradition.

Made only once.
Available on request — hello@gaanvindia.com