The Pahari Schools of Painting

2.1 Core concepts

NCERT opens by defining "Pahari" as hilly or mountainous in origin, an umbrella term covering Basohli, Guler, Kangra, Kullu, Chamba, Mankot, Nurpur, Mandi, Bilaspur and Jammu as the principal western-Himalayan centres of painting between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries (NCERT §Intro, p. 67). The style begins with the coarsely flamboyant Basohli idiom and blossoms — via what scholars call the Guler or pre-Kangra phase — into the most exquisite and sophisticated Kangra School. Unlike the Mughal, Deccani and Rajasthani schools, Pahari paintings present a challenge in territorial classification because Pahari centres did not develop as independent schools with distinctive styles, and there is a chronic paucity of dated material, colophons and inscriptions. NCERT explicitly cautions students that this absence of documentary evidence makes confident regional categorisation difficult; political boundaries in the hills were also fluid (NCERT §Intro, p. 67).

Two observations help organise the Pahari corpus. Scholars widely accept that the Mughal and Rajasthani styles were known in the hills — Provincial Mughal works and family ties with Rajasthani courts indicate continual contact — but the flamboyantly bold Basohli-like idiom is generally taken as the earliest prevailing pictorial language. Beyond geography, the art historian B. N. Goswamy argued that the family of Pandit Seu (Shiv) was chiefly responsible for the course of Pahari paintings, and that identifying paintings by region is misleading; the family of artists is a better unit of style. In the early eighteenth century the Seu family conformed to the Basohli idiom; from the mid-eighteenth century the style transformed through a pre-Kangra phase and matured into the Kangra style — a change attributed not to Mughal-atelier migration into the hills but to the naturalism of newly introduced paintings that appealed to Pahari sensibilities (NCERT §Intro, pp. 67–68).

The Basohli School is the earliest. Raja Kirpal Pal (r. 1678–1695), an enlightened prince, patronised a distinctive style with strong primary colours, warm yellows for the background and horizon, stylised vegetation, raised white paint imitating pearls, and — most diagnostically — the use of tiny shiny green beetle-wing casings to depict jewellery and emeralds. The aesthetic shares features with the Chaurpanchashika group of Western India that students encountered in chapter 1 (NCERT §Basohli, p. 69). The most popular Basohli theme was the Rasamanjari of Bhanu Datta; in 1694–95 Devida, a tarkhan (carpenter-painter), executed a magnificent Rasamanjari series for Kirpal Pal. Other popular themes included the Bhagvata Purana and Ragamala; portraits of local kings with their consorts, courtiers, astrologers, mendicants and courtesans were also painted.

Basohli ateliers spread to Chamba and Kullu, producing local variations of the Basohli kalam. A new style — the Guler–Kangra phase — appeared during the 1690s to 1730s through experimentation that finally moulded into the Kangra style (NCERT §Basohli, p. 70). The Shangri Ramayana of the Kullu Valley (1680–1688 and 1690–1700) takes its name from Shangri, the residence of a branch of the Kullu royal family that originally owned the set. Kullu artists were influenced in varying degrees by both Basohli and Bilaspur styles, producing figures with prominent chin, wide open eyes and lavish grey and terracotta-red backgrounds.

The Guler School represents the second stage. The first quarter of the eighteenth century saw a complete transformation of the Basohli style, initiating the Guler–Kangra phase under Raja Govardhan Chand (r. 1744–1773) of Guler, a high-ranking branch of the Kangra royal family. Pandit Seu, with his sons Manak (also called Manaku) and Nainsukh, is credited with the change around 1730–40 to a more refined, subdued and elegant style (NCERT §Guler, p. 72). Nainsukh became the court painter of Raja Balwant Singh of Jasrota and is held responsible for shaping the Guler School emphatically. The most matured version of the style entered Kangra during the 1780s, becoming the Kangra School, while offshoots of Basohli continued in Chamba and Kullu.

Manaku's most outstanding work is a Gita Govinda series painted in 1730 at Guler. It retains key elements of Basohli style — most strikingly the lavish use of beetle-wing casings — even as it shifts toward the new refined idiom (NCERT §Guler, p. 73). Nainsukh's genius lay in individual portraiture: Balwant Singh performing puja, surveying a building site, wrapped in a quilt — intimate studies that are a salient feature of the later Pahari style. Nainsukh's palette comprised delicate pastel shades with daring expanses of white or grey, producing a distinctively modernist clarity centuries ahead of its time (NCERT §Guler, pp. 73–74).

The Kangra School flowered under Raja Sansar Chand (r. 1775–1823) of the Katoch dynasty, who ascended the throne at age ten after his grandfather Ghamand Chand restored the kingdom and founded Tira Sujanpur on the river Beas. Manaku and his sons joined Sansar Chand after Prakash Chand of Guler faced a financial crisis (NCERT §Kangra, p. 74). Tira Sujanpur became the most prolific Kangra centre; earlier-phase paintings come from Alampur and mature ones from Nadaun — all on the Beas. Comparatively less production took place at Kangra itself, which remained under Mughal control until 1786 and was later annexed by the Sikhs.

The Kangra style is widely regarded as the most poetic and lyrical of all Indian styles, marked by serene beauty, delicacy of line, brilliance of colour and minute decorative detail. Its single most distinctive feature — appearing from around the 1790s — is the female face shown with a straight nose in line with the forehead, a profile convention that has become emblematic of Kangra painting. Popular themes are the Bhagvata Purana, Gita Govinda, Nala Damayanti, Bihari Satsai, Ragamala and Baramasa. Fattu, Purkhu and Khushala are the important named Kangra painters. The style spread from Tira Sujanpur eastward to Garhwal and westward to Kashmir (NCERT §Kangra, p. 75).

Painting activity was severely affected around 1805 when the Gurkhas besieged Kangra fort and Sansar Chand fled to Tira Sujanpur. In 1809, with Ranjit Singh's military help, the Gurkhas were driven away, but the later Kangra work no longer paralleled the masterpieces of 1785–1805 (NCERT §Kangra, pp. 75–76). The Kangra Bhagvata Purana series shows effortless naturalism and deft figures in unusual poses; the principal master is believed to be a descendant of Nainsukh. The Rasa Panchadhyayi — five chapters from the Bhagvata Purana on the philosophical concept of Rasa — inspired one famous Guler–Kangra folio (1780–85) in which gopis re-enact Krishna's lilas: Putana's killing, the Yamala-Arjun liberation, the lifting of Mount Govardhan, the subduing of Kaliya (NCERT §Kangra, pp. 76–77).

The Ashta Nayikas (eight heroines) constitute a major Pahari theme. NCERT names Utka, Svandhinpatika, Vasaksajja, Kalahantarita and Abhisarika as the most flamboyantly painted; Abhisarika — the heroine who hastens to her beloved braving all hazards — is singled out as the most striking. The Kangra Abhisarika Nayika (1810–20, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh) shows the heroine moving through a dark forest at night, lightning flashing overhead. Baramasa paintings — twelve folios, one per month — became popular in the nineteenth-century hills; Keshav Das's tenth chapter of the Kavipriya is the key textual source, with the hot month of Jyeshtha (May–June) as a recurring favourite (NCERT §Kangra, pp. 77–78).

The Kangra School came to the fore in the 1780s; offshoots of the Basohli style continued at Chamba, Kullu, Nurpur, Mankot, Jasrota, Mandi, Bilaspur and Jammu. In Kashmir (1846–1885) the Kangra style initiated a local school of Hindu book illumination; the Sikhs eventually employed Kangra painters. Three broad styles — Basohli, Guler and Kangra — serve as indicative centres. Jasrota's Guler-style work falls under the Guler School. Kullu had figures with prominent chin, wide open eyes and lavish grey and terracotta-red backgrounds (the Shangri Ramayana). Nurpur retained Basohli's vibrant colours with Kangra's dainty figure types. Mankot received Basohli artists through marital relations. The Mandi rulers were ardent Vishnu and Shiva devotees, producing Krishna-lila and Shaivite themes. Molaram is the celebrated name associated with the Garhwal School, which was influenced by Sansar Chand's Kangra style (NCERT §pp. 78–79).

Three case-study paintings round out the topic: Awaiting Krishna and the Hesitant Radha from Manaku's Gita Govinda (Guler–Kangra phase, with a translated inscription on its reverse, p. 81); Balwant Singh looking at a Painting with Nainsukh (a rare self-inclusion by Nainsukh, depicting Balwant Singh smoking a hukka in his palace, p. 82); and Nanda, Yashoda and Krishna (a Bhagvata Purana scene of Nanda's family moving to Vrindavan, whose flush-cut, photograph-like composition exemplifies the mature Kangra naturalism, p. 83).

2.2 Definitions to memorise

2.3 Diagrams / processes to remember

Plates and paintings the candidate should recognise visually: Krishna steals butter, Bhagvata Purana, 1750, N. C. Mehta Collection, Ahmedabad (chapter opener, p. 67); Rama and Sita in the forest, Kangra, 1780, Douglas Barrett Collection, UK (p. 68); Rasamanjari, Basohli, 1720, British Museum, London (p. 69); Rama gives away his possessions, Ayodhya Kanda, Shangri Ramayana, 1690–1700, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (p. 70); Rama and Lakshmana following sage Vishvamitra to the forest, Bala Kanda, Shangri Ramayana, 1680–1688, Raja Raghbir Singh Collection, Shangri, Kullu Valley (p. 71); Balwant Singh in prayer by Nainsukh, 1750, V&A, London (p. 72); Krishna embracing gopis, Gita Govinda, Guler, 1760–65, N. C. Mehta Collection (p. 73); Kaliya Mardana, Bhagvata Purana, Kangra, 1785, National Museum (p. 74); Krishna playing Holi with gopis, Kangra, 1800, National Museum (p. 75); Re-enacting Krishna's deeds, Bhagvata Purana, Guler–Kangra, 1780–85, Private Collection (p. 76); Abhisarika Nayika, Kangra, 1810–20, Government Museum and Art Gallery, Chandigarh (p. 77); A couple in the month of Jyestha, Kangra, 1800, National Museum (p. 78); plus the three case-study paintings on pp. 81, 82 and 83.

The three-stage stylistic evolution should be memorised in chronological order: Basohli (late 17th c.) → Guler/pre-Kangra phase (c. 1730–40 onward) → Kangra (1780s onward, mature 1785–1805, decline post-1805 Gurkha siege).

2.4 Common confusions / NTA trap points

• Pandit Seu's sons are Manak (= Manaku) and Nainsukh — not "Manaku and Manak" as separate people, and not Khushala/Fattu (Khushala, Fattu and Gaudhu are Manaku's and Nainsukh's sons, working in Prakash Chand's court).
• The Guler style is a transformation of Basohli initiated under Raja Govardhan Chand (Guler), but Nainsukh's mature Guler style developed at JASROTA under Balwant Singh — students often place all of Nainsukh's career at Guler.
• The diagnostic Kangra female-face feature (straight nose in line with forehead) appeared c. 1790s, NOT from the start of the Kangra School in the 1780s.
• Beetle-wing casings are the hallmark of Basohli — but Manaku's 1730 Gita Govinda at Guler retains this Basohli feature. A trap question may exclusively attribute beetle wings to Basohli.
• Raja Sansar Chand ruled Kangra 1775–1823 and lost painting momentum after the 1805 Gurkha siege; the most masterly Kangra period is 1785–1805, not the entire reign.
• Shangri Ramayana = Kullu (not Basohli or Guler), even though Kullu artists were influenced by Basohli and Bilaspur.
• Devida is the painter of the 1694–95 Rasamanjari for Kirpal Pal — and he was a TARKHAN (carpenter-painter), not a Brahmin or Rajput by occupation.
• Abhisarika braves HAZARDS (forest, night, lightning) — not just bad weather.
• Tira Sujanpur is on the river BEAS — not the Sutlej or the Ravi.
• B. N. GOSWAMY is the scholar associated with the family-of-artists thesis. CUET may swap him with Karl Khandalavala or W. G. Archer.
• The 1805 Gurkha siege drove Sansar Chand to Tira Sujanpur; Ranjit Singh expelled the Gurkhas in 1809.
• The Kashmir local school of Hindu book illumination flourished 1846–1885 under Kangra influence.

2.5 Key artworks / artists