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Raja Karan Singh of Bikaner, Gouache heightened with gold on paper M.H. de Young Museum, San Francisco
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Miniature Paintings are characterized by their compliance to three visible aspects: small in size, illustrating an event narrated in a popular
book, and executed meticulously with delicate brushwork. The history of
miniature paintings in India could be traced up to the sixth and
seventh century AD. This art had evolved over centuries carrying the influences
of other cultures and traditions.
Indian art had seen many movements, spanning from ancient to modern time.
Obviously, these movements have created their own styles of functions and their
own schools for the promotion of heir movements. Each school of paintings had
its own features. For instance, take the example of miniature paintings done in
the Rajasthan area of India. It depicts the flowing rivers, dense forests, lush
green fields of the Kota-Bundi region into the
paintings of these regions.
For their subjects, Some artists depicted hunting, whereas some painted the
animal fights. Take the portraiture of women. The women depicted in these
paintings, mainly the Miniature art which is known as Mughal Miniature
Paintings are graceful, with well-proportioned costumes and sharp features. The
artists used bright colours mainly, with red, which prominently appeared in the
background of the art piece. The men portraited were invariable carrying
weapons, especially the sword. The horses and elephants also became the part
and parcel of the painted frames.
Medieval Period Paintings After the Miniature painting boom in the sixteenth and
seventeenth century, the other similar artworks started getting their own
importance. They were known as the Kangra Miniatures, or the Pahari School practised mainly during the 18th century. These artists were influenced
by the Mughals; however, their art had retained its separate aroma and
feel. While making the paintings more naturalistic, the artists used the
newly found colours, too. These colours were generally extracted from minerals,
vegetables and other locally available materials.
What matters much were the themes they practised in making the miniatures
and other paintings. The mythological books like Gita Govinda and
Baramasa of Keshavdas were the main source of the subjects.
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RAJASTHAN MINIATURES Lord Krishna and Radha were eternal and divine lovers. This
mythological pair was portrayed in much of the paintings. The artists of the
Rajasthan school preferred these subjects for the reason that these subjects
had characteristics of making the people feeling joy and reverence.
The Kangra style of miniature paintings is known for portraying the famine
charm with its natural grace. These paintings tell us about the
contemporary life of the people; they let us know about the life and habits of
the kings and their pursuits, their lifestyles and the court proceedings.
Today's state of Rajasthan was a part of the much-expanded area known
as Rajputana. The Rajputana has been one of the major regions and an
important centre of the original Indian paintings.
The decoration of the houses, the kings' courts, battle scenes, and monuments they built, were the subjects of the creative genius of the Rajasthani artists depicted on canvasses and other frames. Miniature paintings are perhaps the most interesting and distinctive styles that have existed in India and in Rajasthan in particular.
From the start of the sixteenth century, different schools of paintings,
supported by the Emperors and the Rajput kings, flourished in various
parts of northern India. Some of them are very prominent, and others are
locally known, but they have done recognition-worthy work in the field of
art. The main schools of miniature paintings in the Rajputana regions are
the Mewar School, the Bundi-Kota kalam, the Jaipur, Bikaner, Kishangarh and
Marwar schools.
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| Kalinga Ragaputra |
Ragamala Paintings The Rajasthan, mainly the Jaipur school of paintings,
along with other schools, had developed a novel set of subjects. They depicted
the effects of the raga, the vocal rendition style of singing, into the
paintings. They called them the Ragamala style paintings. Ragamala means the
garland of Ragas.
The Ragamala, the garland of Ragas, is a set of vocal rhythms based on
classical Indian music. In this type of paintings, one raga is selected and a
painting is done to depict the soul of that raga. It represents the essence
that a particular raga is carrying with or is capable to create certain effects
when such raga is sung.
With the spread of the religious sect called Vaishnavism, a sect of
Hinduism, in the early Eighteenth Century, the tales of Hindu mythology became
a major source for the artists. The books like Gita Govinda came to be regarded
as a popular pictorial theme in various art centres like Rajasthan and
Gujarat. During this period the Poems of Gita Govinda were extensively
illustrated in miniature paintings and other artworks like Pahari Painting and
other illustrations.
RAJASTHAN, JAIPUR STYLE It is beyond doubt that art represents the culture of the
period. Likewise, the period of the sixteenth and seventeenth century in India
was marked by the Mughal emperors. In the Rajputana region of northern India,
the Rajput kings ruled. Whereas the art would influence the values of,
whereas the art can translate the people's lifestyle, the Miniature Art in
India is an excellent example of mirroring the life-style of Indian
society. These miniature paintings depicted the then cultural values and
the history of medieval India.
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What does the word 'culture' mean, or include? Certainly, it includes the
languages the people spoke, the costumes they wear, the ornaments they used,
and the weapons they used during war and peace. So the art of medieval India
did depict all these aspects. The miniature paintings were the vehicle for the
art.
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| Jodhabai |
Rajasthan artists used locally available materials. Some of the rich
princesses imported materials from then Persia, too. Generally, they used
colours extracted from minerals, plants and conch shells. Some colours were
derived by processing precious stones. They used precious materials like gold
and silver, too.
The people are shown in Mughal miniature paintings belonged to the upper
class. They mainly came from princely families. Princes and princesses
wearing gold ornaments and jewellery were like the mines of the subjects for
the miniature artists, and they used these mines extensively. One of the
important characteristics of Indian art was its secular nature. There were
rulers following Hindu religions; there were rulers following the Islamic
religion. But the religions were never a cause of dispute in the field of art.
Associated almost exclusively with royalty, the jewellery was, too, the subject
for miniature artists to consider before taking brushes in hand. It was an
emblem of power and proof of wealth.
Paintings of Radha and Krishna The divine pair of Radha and Lord Krishan was one of the prime subjects of the Rajasthan style of miniature paintings. This beauty-clad style of painting flourished in the late seventeenth century in the 18th century. Influenced by the Mughal paintings, the Rajputana or Rajasthan paintings were the subject of the royal courts of western India.
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| Lord Krishna and Radha in Rasleela, The Divine Dance |
Most of the princely states in the then Rajasthan had evolved their
distinct styles, but they have maintained their distinct features, too. Rajput
paintings depict several themes: the themes are the events of great epics
like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and the incidences of Lord Krishna’s
life. Though the lovely landscapes and painting humans were common.
Generally, these Miniature paintings were stored in albums. There are paintings which were done on the walls of palaces, inner chambers of the forts and Havelis, the big residential houses of the Lords. Among them, the palaces built by the Shekhawat Rajputs are prominent. These paintings tell us the story of that period; they educate us about the way of life and habits of the kings and their pursuits, and their lifestyles and the court proceedings.
The Materials: It was not the time of synthetic dyes or industrially manufactured
colours. Hence all the materials these artists used were procured from the
surrounding areas. Colours were made by extracting juices from vegetables. The
coloured stones available locally were powdered and pastes were made. The
Indian miniature artists used indigenous materials to give their artistic
products their unique appearance.
The miniature painters were like other artists functioning during that
time. They allowed their feelings and expressions to be revealed on available
mediums. They had hand-made paper, they carved out the ivory panels and wooden
tablets to use as the support material. Other materials in vogue were leather,
marble stones, cloth and plastered walls used as canvases. They used minerals,
vegetables, precious stones, indigo, and conch shells. Precious materials like
pure gold and silver were also used to detail the masterly executed drawings.
The Themes: The subjects they chose to paint and the themes they selected
to depict were influenced by the choices of their mentors. Various themes these
artists depicted in miniature paintings were rich in the cultural aspect. They
tended to be deep in meaning, too. Among the popular themes, there was a
depiction of incidents from scriptures like Ramayana, Mahabharata, and
Bhagavata Purana. These are the sacred books of the Hindu religion. The Muslim
Emperors also respected these scriptures. The miniature painters also
illustrated various scenes from other popular books like Rasikpriya and
Rasamanjiri.
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| Sri Krishna as Envoy Painted by Raja Ravi Varma |
With the spread of the
Vaishnavism cult of Hindu religion, in the early Eighteenth Century, a book
named Gita Govinda became famous among the elite class. The poems and stories
narrated in this book became popular pictorial themes.
Gita Govinda was a popular book in various regions of north India, like Rajasthan and Gujarat; so the artists exploited the subject in full. During this period the love songs written in it were extensively illustrated in Mughal and other styles of paintings prevalent in north and south India. Thus the subjects chosen by artists were really secular. In the painting given here, the master artist Raja Ravi Verma has painted a mythological story. In this painting, Lord Krishna is painted in the court as an envoy of peace.
In one of the paintings, depicting mythology, the artist has depicted Lord Vishnu and Goddess Laxmi. The materials used in these miniature paintings are the paper sheet and the opaque watercolour made from local materials. As the use of Gold and silver was in vogue in those days, they are used in the decoration of this miniature painting. In this painting, we can see that Lord Visnu and his wife Laksmi are being carried by their beloved Garuda. According to Hindu scriptures, the Garuda is a Godly bird and it is a vehicle for Lord Vishnu. [All the images depicted here are in Public Domain, taken from Wikimedia Commons]
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