It was the year 1916 that the world of art was introduced with the term “Rajput painting”, given by the eminent art historian Ananda Coomaraswamy, to define a category of Indian miniatures that developed in the Rajput states during the medieval period of Indian history. These small folios grew as a result of the blend between folk, and traditional Indian art of different regions along with the art of the Mughal court.
The Rajput paintings are done on wasli, made with layers of thin sheets of handmade paper stuck together to create an opaque canvas. Camel and squirrel hair brushes are used by the artists to make these paintings and unique pigments are used that give a Rajput painting its characteristic appeal.
In this article, we will take a look at the various sub-schools within the Rajput painting category, the features that distinguish them from one another, themes popular among the artists, and the use of colors in the paintings- a marvelous element of these artworks that makes the subjects come to live with vivid energy and drama.
The politics of medieval India was marked by a division of regions among many states, a number of which were known as Rajput kingdoms, populated by royal families and their subjects. Though distinctive in the themes and techniques they favored, these schools also share a cultural background, symbols, and stories that run like a thread connecting the many canvases of Rajput paintings.
Some of the prominent types of art that emerged in the Rajputana region and Rajput states are-
The state of Mewar and its painters gained from the closeness of the ruler with the Mughal court. A striking folio collection of Ragamala painted by Nisardin is an early selection on the theme, which showcases the union of regional and Mughal aesthetics. The regin of Mewar ruler Jagat Singh I (1628-152) is an especially colorful period for Mewar school, when artists such as Sahibdin and Manohar, known as skilled masters with a number of other painters worked on themes of Mahabharata, Bhagavata and Harivamsha Purana, Rasikpriya, etc.
In 1652, a collection of paintings on the Yuddha Kanda of Ramayana was painted, known as “Jagat Singh Ramayana”, a specimen of the interest the ruler showed in nurturing art. Marked by its bright red and yellow color palette, Mewar paintings are an important component and phase in the development of Rajput miniatures.
Popularly known through the Picchwai paintings- that hang behind the icon of Srinathji (Krishna’s form as a young boy lifting Govardhan), Nathdwara paintings developed in the city of Rajasthan, around the Haveli (royal residence, temple) of Krishna. Painted on clothes traditionally, Nathdwara paintings have a devotional aura, depicting Lilas of Krishna, festivals associated with him, different seasons, and stories of the Lord in which fine lines and charming colors combine to create fascinating tapestries.
This school of Rajput painting began to develop around the 17th century, popular for its appealing color scheme and patterns. The Bundi Ragamala series is a known collection on the theme of musical melodies, painted in 1591. A similar theme of Baramasa, where seasons are given human and natural features and painted on canvas, was also a popular subject. Portraiture, usually connected with Mughal paintings, was also worked upon by Bundi artists, especially under Rao Chattar Sal, who was the governor of Delhi during the time of the Mughal king Shahjahan.
Kota school initially originated from the tradition of Bundi paintings but went on to become a unique type of Rajput miniature in its own right. A remarkable feature of the Kota paintings is the dynamic and dramatic scenes of hunting and war, with energy and emotion felt in the rich visualization. A distinguishing part of the Kota artworks is the “marked double shading and double eyelids” of the subjects.
The state came into being under Rao Bika Rathore in 1488, named after the establisher. Anup Singh, a successor to Rao Bika, created a royal library where a collection paintings and folios was kept. An additional push to the artists and their creativity was given by the visit of Mughal artists to the state during 17th century. Rukunuddin, an artist whose ancestors served under the Mughal rulers, was a master painter during the time of King Anup Singh.
Studios for the artists in the form of Mandi were set up by the rulers where the master artist along with his students worked and displayed their work. The paintings when completed, were seen by the archivist of the Mandi, who entered the name of the master artist and the date of completion, creating a system of recording the art.
Besides the making of new paintings, the artists also participated in creating copies of older paintings or Nakal and repairment of frail folios or Marammat.
Alluring eyes shaped like lotuses, fine noses, smiling and curved lips, and supple body forms, are all features of the Kishangarh school of Rajput paintings. Raja Kishan Singh, the king of Jodhpur formed the state of Kishangarh in 1609, but the peak of its art and culture came with the duo of king and painter- Raja Sawant Singh and his master artist Nihal Chand, whose paintings have become the sample for the perfection of Kishangarh art.
Celebrating the beauty of Radha and Krishna, the deities of Sawant Singh, the canvases of this school of art were decorated with heavenly scenes of Krishna Lila, Raas, and romantic episodes of Radha-Krishna. The iconic image of Bani-Thani, or the bedecked woman, compared often to Monalisa by art connoisseurs, is a gem of the Kishangarh school of paintings.
Bani Thani - Kishangarh Style of Portrait | Watercolor Painting by Kailash Raj
Scenes from the royal court and portraits of kings and elites gave the Jodhpur school a documentary quality, giving modern art lovers a peak into the life of the kings. On the other hand, were religious paintings, infused with the devotional environment of sacred Hindu texts and Bhakti poetry popular during the medieval period. Folk aesthetics of the region and stories sung and narrated among the localities of Jodhpur also found a space amongst the regal themes of court and hunt.
This school of Rajput miniatures is characterized by the regal and rich themes and colors developed from the former capital city of Amer, with the establishment of Jaipur under Sawai Jai Singh in 1827. To nurture court art, the best in the game- artists from the Mughal court were brought to Jaipur state and the Suratkhana, where paintings were created and stored was restructured. A high point is observed by many under the rule of Sawai Pratap Singh who had 50 painters working under him and who was a skilled artist and poet himself. In the 19th century, the use of gold in Jaipur School gave it another layer of unique layer of aesthetic to its canvases.
The Rajput painter had inherited a legacy of mural painting as well as the art of the book. He devised a pictorial scheme with colour as a principal means of visual articulation. Conspicuously he retained the colour of complexions, costumes and architecture as local, while playing up the tenor of the natural environment in low or high key, or changing them altogether from their normal hues.
☀ The blue complexion of Krishna is maintained as normal, hence considered local and not exceptional.) The strength of many Rajput paintings rests in balancing the tension of the two. It meant that the world of natural environment was conceived through the eyes of human images who inhabited it and not through an 'objective' view from outside. It afforded the artist an opportunity to improvise a colour scheme to match the mood of the image portrayed through the environment, approximating its fluctuations by raising or lowering the tenor of colour.
☀ Colour is not viewed empirically as a consequence of refraction of light , hence its use is not necessarily descriptive. This counters the notion of colour being local to objects of optical perception-so integral to illusionistic art. It however refers to light metaphorically as a source that vivifies, heightens or mellows (in short transforms) the field of vision. But light here should be distinguished from daylight or artificial light with their contingent shadows.
☀ Dark and shadows as means of formal articulation and concealment-so predominant a factor in European painting, are also conspicuously absent here. The night scenes, except in the very late miniatures increasingly under the influence of European art, are usually rendered in full or filtered light of the moon or lamps with total visibility and night's presence indicated by conventional symbols.
This distinguishes it from the representation of atmosphere in European painting as well. The Impressionist use of colour to represent light and air is equally alien to Rajput painting. In the Impressionist scheme, the change of colour meant a negation of browns and blacks as shadows and an aesthetic confirmation of the new theory of light according to the invention of the prism. Though a departure in some measure from the conventional modes, it was basically within the ambit of optical appearance related to illusionism. For the Rajput, this was antithetic to the nature of his perception of colours.
Whether it is the colors that make the Rajput paintings a vibrant world or the technique used by artists for generations to make canvases fit for a royal, these artworks are a unique and thus timeless part of Indian art treasures. With the change in the contemporary art market, the artists have shifted to new mediums and surfaces for Rajput paintings, with aesthetics entering the popular realm of textiles, ceramics, accessories, and décor items. Carrying stories of a historical time and exhibiting the rich intermingling of cultures in medieval India, Rajput paintings are a window to history on your walls.
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