The term Pahari painting generally includes paintings from the hill centers of the northern Himalayas, ranging between Jammu and Garhwal - Basohli, Guler, Kangra, Nurpur, Bilaspur, Manali and Kullu. Kangra miniatures form a very important group of painting from the hill states. Surrounded by Chamba, Guler and Mandi, Kangra was a haven for artists. Texts of the Gita Govinda, Bhiari's Satsai, and the Baramasa of Keshavdas were favorites with painters for their depiction of intense love. Idealized lovers, identified as Krishna and Radha, are portrayed in human likeness amid the glorious flora and fauna of Kangra valley.
The woman in Kangra paintings is the epitome of female charm. The compositions are the most enchanting and the landscape suffused with a lyrical dream-like quality - the quintessence of Kangra paintings.
Nayak-Nayika theme, classification of men and women according to their attitudes towards love, forms another favorite theme of the Kangra painting. Rasikpriya and Kavipriya of Keshavdas are the texts chosen for illustration. A certain remarkable tranquility pervades these paintings eschewing strong clashes of sentiments or colors.
The later Kangra paintings show a great deal of sophistication. Multi-figure groups have none of the rigidity of postures typical of the Mughal paintings. An oval composition set within a square frame with Mughal style decoration on the spandrels is a Kangra feature.
Kangra paintings, at a rather advanced stage, included towns or cluster of houses in the distance. Curiously, the Kangra mountains, some rising to 13000 ft., are never depicted in miniatures. Both Guler and Kangra miniatures include some exquisite paintings depicting scenes under star-studded skies and storms with lightning running across the horizon, a feature missing in other school of painting.
Various schools of miniature painting collectively called Pahari, flourished between the 17th and 19th centuries in the sub-Himalayan states towards the end of the Mughal rule in India. Rajput kings or chieftains who were all great connoisseurs of art ruled the hilly region, comprising of 22 princely states, extending from Jammu to Almora. With the infusion of new ideas and techniques these schools attained a level of maturity and sophistication, which made them worthy successors of the Mughal tradition. This art dwelt largely on the themes and symbols from literature and mythology. A typical Pahari composition consists of several figures skillfully grouped and full of movement, and each is distinctive in terms of clothing, hairstyle and even pigmentation, which may be blue, white, pink or grey. Pandit Seu of Guler and his sons Manaku and Nainsukh were among the greatest of the Pahari painters. The Pahari paintings can be classified into two groups: a northern series called the Jammu or Dogra school and the southern series called the Kangra school. |
