PAHARI SCHOOL OF PAINTINGS

Beginning at Basohli with a coarsely flamboyant style, it blossomed into the most exquisite and sophisticated style of Indian painting known as the Kangra School, through the Guler or pre-Kangra phase Themes that included recording the daily routine or important occasions from the lives of kings, creation of a new prototype for the female form and an idealised face, are all associated with this newly emerging style that gradually matures to the Kangra phase.

1. Basohli School

• It is characterized by strong use of primary colours and warm yellows — filling the background and horizon, stylized treatment of vegetation and raised white paint for imitating the representation of pearls in ornaments.
•  However, the most significant characteristic of Basohli's painting is the use Of small, shiny green particles of beetle wings to delineate jewellery and simulate the effect of emeralds. In their vibrant palette and elegance, they share the aesthetics of the Chaurpanchashika group of paintings of Western India.
• The most popular theme of Basohli painters was the Rasamanjari of Bhanu Datta. In 1694–95, Devida, a tarkhan (carpenter–painter), did a magnificent series for his patron Kirpal Pal.
• Bhagvata Purana and Ragamala were other popular themes. Artists also painted portraits of local kings with their consorts, courtiers, astrologers, and mendicants; A new style of painting came into vogue during 1690s to 1730s, which was referred to as the Guler–Kangra phase.
• Artists during this period indulged in experimentation and improvisations that finally resulted and moulded into the Kangra style
• The Sanskrit epic, Ramayana, was one of the favourite texts of the hill artists at Basohli, as well as, Kullu. This set derives its name from ‘Shangri’, the place of residence of a branch of the Kullu royal family, patrons and formerly Possessors of this set
• Rama learns of his exile and prepares to leave Ayodhya along with his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana. Maintaining equanimity of mind, Rama indulges in his last acts of giving away his possessions. At the request of Rama, his brother Piles up his belongings and the crowd begins to gather to receive the largesse of their beloved Rama — jewellery, sacrificial vessels, thousand cows and other treasures Set apart on the left are the two princes with Sita standing On a carpet with a crowd of recipients moving towards them.
• The painter carefully introduces different types of recluses, Brahmins, courtiers, commoners and servants of the royal household. The bounteous gifts represented are a pile of gold coins and garments on the carpet, and cows and calves Unaware of the momentous event, beseechingly looking at Rama with necks stretched, gazes fixed and mouths wide Open Another painting from the same set depicts Rama and Lakshmana accompanying sage Vishvamitra to the forest to defeat the demons, who would distress the hermits by disturbing their meditative practices and contaminating their rituals.
• An interesting feature of this painting is the representation of animals, stealthily prowling behind trees, half hidden in the heavy outgrowth. A clever fragmentary Portrayal of a wolf on the left and a tiger on the right. 

2. Guler School

• This phrase first appeared in Guler, a high-ranking branch of the Kangra royal family, under the patronage of Raja Govardhan Chand (1744–1773). Guler artist Pandit Seu with his sons Manak and Nainsukh are attributed with changing the course of painting around 1730–40 to a new style, usually, referred to as the pre–Kangra or Guler–Kangra kalam.
• This style is more refined, subdued and elegant compared to the bold vitality of the Basohli style. Though initiated by Manak, also called Manaku, his brother Nainsukh, who became the court painter of Raja Balwant Singh of Jasrota, is responsible for shaping the Guler School emphatically.
•  The most mature version of this style entered Kangra during the 1780s, thus, developing into the Kangra School while the offshoots of Basohli continued in Chamba and Kullu, India. Manak’s most outstanding work is a set of Gita Govinda Painted in 1730 at Guler, it retains some of the elements of the Basohli style, most strikingly the lavish use of beetle wing casings
• Nainsukh’s celebrated pictures of Balwant Singh are unique in the kind of visual record they offer of the patron’s life. Balwant Singh is portrayed as engaged in various activities — performing puja, surveying a building site, sitting in a camp wrapped in a quilt because of the cold weather, and so on.
• The artist gratified his patron’s obsession by painting him on every possible occasion. Nainsukh’s genius was for individual portraiture which became a salient feature of the later Pahari style. 

3. Kangra School

• An earlier phase of Kangra Kalam paintings is witnessed in Alampur and the most matured paintings were painted at Nadaun, where Sansar Chand shifted later in his life.
• The Kangra style is by far the most poetic and lyrical of Indian styles marked with serene beauty and delicacy of execution. Characteristic features of the Kangra style are the delicacy of line, the brilliance of colour and the minuteness of decorative details.
• Distinctive is the delineation of the female face, with a straight nose in line with the forehead, which came in vogue around the 1790s and is the most distinctive feature of this style.
• The most popular themes that were painted were the Bhagvata Purana, Gita Govinda, Nala Damayanti, Bihari Satsai, Ragamala and Baramasa Many other paintings comprise a pictorial record of Sansar Chand and his court. He is shown sitting by the riverside, listening to music, watching dancers, presiding over festivals, practising tent pegging and archery, drilling troops, and So on and forth.
• Fattu, Purkhu and Khushala are important painters of the Kangra style The Kangra style soon spread from Tira Sujanpur to Garhwal in the east and Kashmir in the west
• This series of Bhagvata Purana paintings is one of the greatest achievements of Kangra artists. It is remarkable for its effortless naturalism and deft and vivid rendering of figures in unusual poses that crisply portray dramatic scenes of five chapters from the Bhagvata Purana devoted to the philosophical concept of Rasa.
•  It has passages that speak movingly of the love that Gopis have for Krishna. Their pain is real when Krishna suddenly disappears. In their forlorn state of separation, they appear utterly devastated by the fruitlessness of search when the deer, trees or creepers, whom they address in their distracted state, do not have answers to their piteous questions regarding the whereabouts Of Krishna.
• With minds engrossed in thoughts of Krishna, the gopis recall and enact his various lilas or feats. Some of them are — the killing of Putana, the liberation of Yamala–Arjun after Krishna was tied to a mortar by Yashoda, the lifting of Mount Govardhan and rescue of the inhabitants of Braj from the heavy downpour and wrath of Indra, the subduing of serpent Kaliya, and the intoxicating call and allure of Krishna’s flute. The gopis take on different roles and emulate his divine sports.
• The artist captures and evokes these sensitive images exquisitely in this folio. On the extreme left, a gopi enacts Krishna’s part as she bends forward and appears to suck the bosom of another gopi, who plays the role of Putana and raises her hand to the head in response as if dying while her breath is being sucked away. Next to them, another gopi enacts the character of Yashoda, who along with other gopis holds out her garment in a gesture of removing the evil eye after the young Krishna performed the brave feat of killing Putana.
• In the group beside this towards the right, a gopi enacts the mortar to which another gopi, who plays the role of Young Krishna, is tied with a cloth band, while his mother admonishingly stands holding a stick in her hands.
• In the adjoining group, a gopi, sporting a turban, lifts her piled-up odhani atop in the guise of lifting Mount Govardhan, while others seek protection underneath. To the extreme left in the bottom, a gopi enacts Krishna, who is playing the flute, as some gopis dance and sing, and others crawl towards him, disentangling themselves from their angry mothers-in-law, who try to drag and hold them back from going. In the most magnificent of these cameos to the extreme bottom on the right, a gopi hurls a blue garment edged with gold over the ground, which takes the form of the multiple-hooded serpent Kaliya, upon whom she dances like Krishna.
• Depiction of Ashta Nayikas or eight heroines is one of the most painted themes in Pahari paintings, involving the depiction of women in various dispositions and emotive states. To mention a few — Utka is the one who anticipates the arrival of her beloved and patiently waits for him, Svandhinpatika is the one whose husband is subject to her will, Vasaksajja awaits her beloved’s return from a voyage and decorates the bed with flowers in a welcoming gesture, Kalahantarita is the one who resists her beloved when he seeks to soften her pride and repents when he comes late.
• Even though describing Ashta Nayikas remained a favourite among poets and painters, none of them is treated with as much flair as the Abhisarika, one who hastens to meet her beloved braving all hazards.
• The situation conceived is, generally, full of bizarre and dramatic possibilities with the passion and steadfastness of the nayika, triumphing against the opposing elements of nature.
•  In this painting, the sakhi is recounting how the nayika crossed the woods in the night to meet her beloved. The yoga, the poet speaks of, refers to the single-mindedness of purpose with which the nayika moves through the dark forest in the night.
• The broad iconography of the Abhisarika remains much the same. However, at times, painters vary their renderings in some measure. The ghouls that, usually, appear in many versions are omitted here. But the darkness of the night, flashes of lighting, murky clouds, snakes hissing about in the dark, emerging from hollows of the trees and falling jewellery are all painted.
• The Baramasa paintings, consisting of 12 folios, illustrating the modes of love or courtship appropriate to each month of the year had become a popular theme in the Hills during the nineteenth century.
• An account of Baramasa is given by Keshav Das in the tenth chapter of Kavipriya. He, thus, describes the hot month of Jyeshtha, which falls in May and June.
•  The painter takes utmost delight in depicting all analogues as described by the poet.
•  The Kangra School came to the fore in the 1780s while the offshoots of the Basohli style emerged and continued in centres such as Chamba, Kullu, Nurpur, Mankot, Jasrota, Mandi, Bilaspur, Jammu and others with some of their specific characteristics.
• There is a broad classification of three styles — Basohli, Guler and Kangra.
• One finds portraits of the rulers of Chamba in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in the Basohli style. Kullu emerged with a distinctive style, where figures had a prominent chin and wide-open eyes, and lavish use of grey and terracotta red colours in the background was made. Shangri Ramayana is a well-known set painted in the Kullu Valley in the last quarter of the seventeenth century
• It is believed that when the Basohli style had outgrown itself and matured into the Kangra style, Nurpur artists retained the vibrant colours of Basohli with the dainty figure types Of Kangra
• Due to marital relations between Basohli and Mankot, few artists from Basohli seem to have shifted to Mankot, thereby, developing a similar school of painting
•  Rulers of Mandi were ardent worshippers of Vishnu and Shiva. Hence, apart from the Krishna Lila themes, Shaivite subjects were also painted. An artist named Molaram is associated with the Garhwal School. Several signed paintings by him have been discovered. This school was influenced by the Kangra style of Sansar Chand phase

4. Awaiting Krishna and Hesitant Radha

• A delightful description of spring follows and the poet describes the sports of Krishna with other gopis. Ignored by Krishna, heartbroken Radha sulks in a bower as her friend, sakhi, describes how Krishna continues to wander with the pretty cowherd girls.
•  After some time, Krishna feels remorseful and starts looking for Radha, and on not finding her, laments for her. The messenger, now, goes to Radha and tells her of their longing for Krishna for her. Ultimately, she persuades her to meet him and what follows is the mystic union. Though the characters are divine and enact the play at a philosophical plane, where Radha is a devotee or soul, and Krishna, the Cosmic power, in whom she is to be drowned, the love sport Played here is rather human.
• In this painting, Radha is shown feeling shy and hesitant as She approaches the forested area, while Krishna is seen eagerly Waiting for her. 

5. Balwant Singh Looking at Painting with Nalnsukh 

• The painting depicts Prince Balwant Singh of Jasrota closely observing a painting that he is holding in his hands. A figure standing behind him politely bowing down probably represents none other than the artist of the painting, Nainsukh.
• This painting is probably rare, where Nainsukh paints himself with his patron.
• Balwant Singh is seated in his palace, overlooking the lush green landscape teeming with trees.
• The time depicted appears to be that of early evening and Nainsukh’s clutter-free composition is itself indicative of quietude, peace and tranquillity that is suggestive of Balwant Singh’s temperament in the painting. He is smoking hukka, Something that, he usually, indulges in during spells of a break between work. Musicians are deftly placed towards the outer edge of the painting to indicate their presence.
• Their positioning, in the painting, suggests that they are not Clamoring to be heard but ‘softly’ producing music, thus, enhancing the calmness, while Balwant Singh remains engrossed in the details of the painting that depicts Krishna. 

6. Nanda, Yashoda and Krishna 

• This painting also illustrates a scene from the Bhagvata Purana and depicts Nanda with his family and relatives, travelling to Vrindavan. They found Gokul infested with demons that bothered Krishna to no end and hence decided to move to a safer place.
•  In the painting, Nanda is seen leading the group on his bullock cart and is followed by another bullock cart, wherein, both brothers, Krishna and Balaram and their respective mothers, Yashoda and Rohini, are seated.
•  Men and women carry various household items and children are seen accompanying them. Detailing in their expressions, the activities they are indulging in are intriguing. The tilt of their heads as they talk to each other, an expression of fatigue expressed with downcast eyes because of the heaviness of the load on the head and the taut stretching of arms as one firmly holds on to the vessel on the head are all examples of amazing observation and excellent skill.