British Museum collection - Although in the past the majority of Indian people might have been illiterate, they were not uneducated. They were taught the principles ruling their religious and social life through the recitation of stories drawn from the epics, the puranas and other religious texts... In the past, the retelling of these stories provided the education of the unlettered, and the discourses were accompanied by visual aids: scrolls, painted cloth hangings, sets of paintings, and wooden boxes with folding, concertina-like doors painted with scenes from the 'career' of a deity, such as the portable shrine from Tirupati that is now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford... The earliest known reference to the picture showmen is found in Patanjali's Mahabhashya (2nd century BC). Commenting on the passage on the historic present in Panini's grammar, the Ashtadhyayi (c. 5th century BC), Patanjali takes as an example some picture showmen who are discussing the killing of Kamsa at the hands of Krishna... There is also a specific mention of a picture showing Kamsa being dragged by the hair and beaten by Krishna. Numerous references to picture showmen and painted scrolls occur in literary sources. The scrolls showing the torments of hell, yamapattaka, seem to have been particularly popular. The Mandhets were the itinerant bards and performers of Andhra Pradesh while the Nakashis were the artists. The Nakashis of Telangana also made dolls, much like the Kinnal dolls of Karnataka, in addition to the painted scrolls. These scrolls were a very important part of the sociological and cultural setting of Telangana. As these paintings are now confined to Cheriyal village, they are called Cheriyal scrolls. In earlier times, the scrolls were a colourful backdrop to the equally interesting oral traditions of the common people, - the village hajjam-barber, toddy tapper, dhobhi-washerman, chamar-leatherworker, fisherman, weaver and farmer: (Madiga, Goud, Mudiraju, Malas, Padmashali, Chakala and Mangali) the seven working and marginalised castes and communities of the village. The scrolls set out the adventures and exploits of local folk heroes who performed on the fringes of the epics, Puranas, etc. of the Hindu 'Greater Tradition'. Each community had its peculiarities and its favourite heroes and heroines as also selection of stories from local Mythologies. It was also customary to sacrifice a goat after the recitation of the story from the scroll in some communities. Present times At present, Cheriyal painting work is continuing by the families