The Pahari Schools of Painting

Written and reviewed by Subhra Gupta, Humanities faculty at UniDrill (M.A. Sociology, University of Delhi · 7 years teaching Humanities). Based on NCERT Fine Arts Class XII (An Introduction to Indian Art Part II), Chapter 5.

Why do hill paintings look so different from the Mughal court?

Imagine a small kingdom tucked into a Himalayan valley, a few hundred artists and one king who loves pictures. There is no huge imperial workshop and no printed catalogue, and artists marry, move and carry their sketches with them. That is the world of Pahari painting. "Pahari" simply means hilly or mountainous in origin, and the label covers the painting centres of the western Himalayas between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. The surprise of the chapter is the journey: it starts with loud, flat, glowing colour at Basohli and ends with the soft, lyrical Kangra style, often called the most poetic in Indian painting.

The big idea: three stages, one story

Pahari painting is easiest to remember as a relay. A bold style is born, a family of artists refines it, and a rich patron lets the refined style bloom.

The relay in one line: Basohli (bold) → Guler–Kangra phase (refined) → Kangra (lyrical).

Why the places are hard to pin down. In the Mughal, Deccani and Rajasthani schools, a regional style stands out clearly. Pahari centres did not grow into independent schools with a distinct style of their own, and there is a shortage of dated paintings, colophons (notes by the scribe or painter) and inscriptions. So art historians cannot easily say "this belongs to Guler" the way they can say "this is Mughal". Each centre did show its own taste in landscape, architecture, figure types, faces, costume and favourite colours, but the lines between centres stayed blurred.

Where did the style come from? Scholars are cautious. It is widely accepted that Mughal and Rajasthani paintings were known in the hills, probably through Provincial Mughal examples and the family ties of hill rajas with Rajasthani courts. The bold Basohli-like style is generally understood to be the earliest prevailing pictorial language of the hills.

Two views. For the exam: the shift from Basohli to Kangra was a sudden transformation in the middle of the eighteenth century, caused by newly introduced paintings, especially in the Mughal style, that were naturalistic and appealed to Pahari artists (the view of B. N. Goswamy). Another reading: an older hypothesis said the change was caused by artists migrating from the Mughal workshop into the hills. Most scholars now dispute that, because the evidence points to hill artist families responding to paintings that arrived by many routes: rulers, artists, traders or events.

Two views. For the exam: B. N. Goswamy argues that the family of Pandit Seu (Shiv) was chiefly responsible for the course of Pahari painting, and that sorting paintings by region misleads because hill political boundaries were always fluid. Another reading: the older and simpler practice is to group paintings by place and ruler, as the three indicative centres (Basohli, Guler, Kangra) do. The chapter accepts both, since the three centres are useful signposts even though the style travelled with families. Goswamy applies the same family argument to Rajasthani schools too.

Basohli: the loud, glowing beginning

The first and most dramatic work from the hill states is from Basohli. Kirpal Pal, an enlightened prince, ruled from 1678 to 1695, and under him Basohli developed a distinctive and magnificent style.

Basohli painters shared the vibrant palette and elegance of the Chaurpanchashika group of paintings of Western India.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: the shiny green particles of beetle wings are the most significant Basohli characteristic. In reality: the beetle wing casings are real, iridescent wing cases glued on to the painted jewellery. They catch the light the way emeralds do, so the picture literally glitters, and they are still visible on surviving works. Why it matters: a question that says "technique used to imitate emeralds" has only one answer, but remember that Manaku's Guler set of 1730 still uses them heavily.

What did Basohli painters paint? The most popular theme was the Rasamanjari of Bhanu Datta. In 1694–95, Devida, a tarkhan (carpenter-painter), produced a magnificent Rasamanjari series for his patron Kirpal Pal. The Bhagvata Purana and Ragamala were other popular themes, and artists also painted portraits of local kings with consorts, courtiers, astrologers, mendicants and courtesans.

Beyond the textbook. For the exam: Rasamanjari is simply named as the most popular Basohli theme. In reality: it is a Sanskrit work that classifies heroines and heroes by their moods and situations, which is why painters treat it as a ready-made picture list for love scenes. The same habit of classifying heroines gives Pahari art its Ashta Nayika theme later in this chapter. Why it matters: it explains why one text links two very different pictures: a Basohli series and a Kangra heroine in a storm.

Spread and sister centres. Artists' workshops from Basohli gradually spread to other hill states such as Chamba and Kullu, producing local variations of the Basohli kalam (style). Portraits of the rulers of Chamba from the seventeenth and early eighteenth century are in the Basohli style. Kullu developed a distinctive look, with figures with a prominent chin, wide open eyes, and lavish grey and terracotta red in the backgrounds.

The Shangri Ramayana is a well-known set from the Kullu Valley painted in the last quarter of the seventeenth century. It takes its name from Shangri, the residence of a branch of the Kullu royal family who patronised it and were its former owners. The paintings vary in style from each other, so they are believed to be by different sets of artists, influenced in varying degrees by Basohli and Bilaspur.

Pause and predict: a museum label reads "Kullu Valley, last quarter of the seventeenth century, Ramayana." Which named set is it?

Check your answer: the Shangri Ramayana. The name comes from the place, Shangri, where a branch of the Kullu royal family kept the set, so it is a Kullu work and not a Basohli or Guler one.

Guler and the family that changed the style

In the first quarter of the eighteenth century the Basohli style was completely transformed, which began the Guler–Kangra phase. It appeared first in Guler, a high-ranking branch of the Kangra royal family, under Raja Govardhan Chand (1744–1773). Guler had a much older tradition of painting: portraits of Raja Dalip Singh (1695–1743) and his son Bishan Singh from before the 1730s survive. Bishan Singh died during his father's lifetime, so his younger brother Govardhan Chand became king, and that reign saw the change in style.

The artist Pandit Seu and his sons Manak (Manaku) and Nainsukh are credited with changing the course of painting around 1730–40 to a new style, called the pre-Kangra or Guler–Kangra kalam. It is more refined, subdued and elegant than the bold energy of Basohli.

Manaku started the change, but Nainsukh, who became court painter to Raja Balwant Singh of Jasrota, shaped the Guler School most emphatically.

What Nainsukh painted. Nainsukh's pictures of Balwant Singh are unique as a visual record of a patron's life. They show Balwant Singh performing puja, surveying a building site, and sitting in camp wrapped in a quilt in cold weather. The artist indulged the patron's wish to be painted on every possible occasion. This gift for individual portraiture became a salient feature of later Pahari style.

Pause and predict: a painting shows a prince sitting in camp wrapped in a quilt, with a delicate pastel palette and wide pale grey spaces. Whose style is it, and who was the patron?

Check your answer: Nainsukh's, with Balwant Singh of Jasrota as patron. Intimate, everyday portraiture and daring expanses of white or grey are his signature, and the winter-camp quilt scene is one of the textbook's examples.

Kangra: the style at its most lyrical

Painting in the Kangra region blossomed under Raja Sansar Chand (1775–1823). It is believed that when Prakash Chand of Guler fell into a grave financial crisis and could no longer maintain his workshop, his master artist Manaku and Manaku's sons took service under Sansar Chand of Kangra.

The Katoch rulers and Sansar Chand. The Katoch dynasty had ruled the Kangra region for a long time, until Jahangir conquered the territory in the seventeenth century and made them vassals. After the decline of Mughal power, Raja Ghamand Chand recovered most of the territory and founded his capital at Tira Sujanpur on the banks of the river Beas, where he built fine monuments and kept a workshop of artists. His grandson Sansar Chand became king at the age of ten. He established the supremacy of Kangra over the surrounding hill states, and Tira Sujanpur became the most prolific centre of painting under him.

His son Aniruddha Chand (1823–1831) was also a generous patron and is often shown painted with his courtiers.

What makes a painting Kangra? The style is by far the most poetic and lyrical of Indian styles, with serene beauty and delicacy of execution. Its characteristic features are delicacy of line, brilliance of colour and minute decorative detail. The single most distinctive feature is the female face drawn with the straight nose in line with the forehead, which came into fashion around the 1790s.

Popular themes were the Bhagvata Purana, Gita Govinda, Nala Damayanti, Bihari Satsai, Ragamala and Baramasa. Many paintings are also a pictorial record of Sansar Chand and his court: sitting by the river, listening to music, watching dancers, presiding over festivals, practising tent pegging and archery, and drilling troops. Fattu, Purkhu and Khushala are important painters of the Kangra style.

Under Sansar Chand, Kangra produced far more than any other hill state, using a large studio with artists from Guler and other places. The style spread from Tira Sujanpur to Garhwal in the east and Kashmir in the west.

What went wrong? Painting was severely affected around 1805 when the Gurkhas besieged the Kangra fort and Sansar Chand had to flee to his hill palace at Tira Sujanpur. In 1809, with the help of Ranjit Singh, the Gurkhas were driven away. Sansar Chand kept his workshop, but the work no longer matched the masterpieces of 1785–1805.

The big timeline

Themes: stories, heroines and the twelve months

The Rasa Panchadhyayi folio. A famous Guler–Kangra painting (about 1780–85) is inspired by the Rasa Panchadhyayi, a group of five chapters from the Bhagvata Purana devoted to the philosophical concept of Rasa. The text describes the gopis' love for Krishna and their pain when he suddenly disappears. Their search is fruitless when the deer, trees and creepers they question have no answers. Absorbed in thoughts of Krishna, they recall and enact his deeds.

In the folio, a gopi takes the part of Krishna and another plays the dying demoness Putana. Another plays Yashoda, who holds out her garment to remove the evil eye. A gopi stands for the mortar to which a child Krishna was tied with a cloth band by Yashoda, who holds a stick. A gopi in a turban lifts a pile of her odhni (veil) in the guise of Mount Govardhan, while others shelter beneath. In the most magnificent cameo, a gopi flings a blue gold-edged garment on the ground so that it takes the form of the many-hooded serpent Kaliya, and she dances upon it like Krishna.

Ashta Nayikas: eight heroines, eight moods. One of the most painted Pahari themes shows women in different dispositions and emotive states. The chapter names these.

Abhisarika in a painting. The Abhisarika was treated with the most flair. The situation is full of dramatic possibilities, with the nayika's passion and steadfastness triumphing over the opposing forces of nature. In the Kangra picture of 1810–20, a sakhi (friend) recounts how the nayika crossed the woods at night. The ghouls that appear in many versions are left out, but the dark night, flashes of lightning, murky clouds, snakes hissing from the hollows of trees and falling jewellery are all painted.

Baramasa. Baramasa paintings, consisting of 12 folios illustrating the modes of love or courtship fitting each month of the year, became a popular theme in the hills in the nineteenth century. Keshav Das gives an account of Baramasa in the tenth chapter of the Kavipriya. The hot month of Jyeshtha, in May and June, is one of the months described.

Other hill centres at a glance

The chapter groups the style into three broad centres, Basohli, Guler and Kangra, which are indicative centres from which the style travelled. Where the Guler style is seen in Jasrota, it is classed under the Guler School with Jasrota as one of its centres.

Key paintings: look, name, place

You cannot see the plates here, so train yourself to recognise each painting from its description. The last column tells you what to notice.

Three case-study paintings

Awaiting Krishna and the Hesitant Radha (Manaku, Guler–Kangra phase). From the Gita Govinda of Jayadeva, which begins with Radha and Krishna falling in love on the banks of the Yamuna. The painting shows a shy, hesitant Radha approaching a forested area, while Krishna waits eagerly. The source of the painter's imagination is the inscription on the back, a verse urging Radha to give up her shyness and go to her beloved. The characters are divine and enact the story at a philosophical level, with Radha as the devotee or soul and Krishna as the cosmic power, while the love play itself is human.

Balwant Singh looking at a Painting with Nainsukh. Prince Balwant Singh of Jasrota sits in his palace, closely studying a painting in his hands, and overlooks a lush green landscape. A bowing figure behind him probably represents Nainsukh himself, which makes this a rare painting in which the artist includes himself with his patron. It is early evening. The clutter-free composition suggests quiet and peace. Balwant Singh smokes a hukka, as he did during breaks from work, and the musicians stand at the outer edge so softly that they do not clamour to be heard.

Nanda, Yashoda and Krishna. A scene from the Bhagvata Purana shows Nanda leading his family and relatives on a bullock cart as they travel to Vrindavan, because Gokul is troubled by demons. A second cart carries Krishna, Balaram and their mothers Yashoda and Rohini. Men, women and children carry household items and the details are keenly observed: heads tilted in conversation, downcast eyes of tired people with loads on their heads, arms stretched to steady a vessel. The flush-cut composition, resembling a photograph, adds to the naturalism of the Kangra painters.

Exam traps

60-second revision

Where this chapter connects

• Previous: The Rajasthani Schools of Painting shares the Rasamanjari, Ragamala and Chaurpanchashika background that Basohli drew on.
• Compare: The Mughal School of Miniature Painting is the naturalistic style that reached the hills and appealed to Pahari artists.
• Next: The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism begins the modern period after the miniature traditions.