Pahari Drawings In the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art By Dr. John Seyller and Jagdish Mittal Pahari drawings are sketches by artists of the states located in the foothills of the western Himalayas. These states, some thirty in all were ruled by Hindu rajas, and comprised Jammu (Kashmir), the northern hill region of the Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Garhwal (in modern-day Uttaranchal). From about C.E. 1630, court painting flourished in this remote and beautiful region thanks in large part to long periods of peace and prosperity. Over the past sixty years many museums and collectors have avidly sought out Pahari miniature paintings, whose poetic imagery, vibrant colours, and meticulous workmanship have an immediate appeal. Although much has been written about them, relatively little attention has been devoted to drawings done by the same painters. The main reason for this neglect is the lack of access to good drawings, a fact that has meant that drawings have generally neither been studied in adequate depth nor properly published, because drawings traditionally remained part of the artist's stock and were not delivered to the patrons of their paintings. About half of the Pahari states became centres of painting from the 17th to 19th century, but drawings are known mainly from Guler, Jammu, Kangra and Chamba, and secondly from Basohli, Mankot and Bandralta. This catalogue showcases examples from these schools, the best drawings by the Guleri artist brothers Manaku and Nainsukh, as well as by their sons and grandsons, who were active at Guler, Jammu, Basohli and Chamba from about 1730 until 1825. Of great significance for study is the museum's unparalleled collection of Chamba drawings, most of them being published here for the first time. This publication, the inaugural volume in the series of catalogues of the Museum's drawings, is the first serious study of Pahari drawings - in fact, of any school of Indian drawings. It showcases some of the finest drawings by Pahari painters and discusses in depth all aspects of their production, themes and historical details.
John Seyller, Professor of Art History at the University of Vermont, U.S.A., is an internationally acclaimed authority on Indian painting. During the past twenty-seven years he has published numerous insightful articles about various aspects of 16- and 17th-century Mughal paintings and manuscripts. Among his books are Workshop and Patron in Mughal India: The Freer Ramayana and Other Illustrated Manuscripts of 'Abd al-Rahim (1999); Pearls of the Parrot of India: The Walters Art Museum Khamsa of Amir Khusraw of Delhi (2001); The Adventures of Hamza: Painting and Storytelling in Mughal India (2002); and The Eva and Konrad Seitz Collection of Indian Miniatures: Mughal and Deccani Paintings (2010). He is currently collaborating with Jagdish Mittal on three other Museum catalogues: Pahari Paintings; Mughal Paintings, Drawings, and Islamic Calligraphy; and Deccani Paintings.
Jagdish Mittal is an artist turned art collector and art historian. He is the Principal Trustee of the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, to which he and his wife, Kamla, gifted their unique art collection in 1976. In 1990, the Government of India awarded him the honour of Padmashri. Along with many research articles in prestigious publications, he has published Andhra Paintings of the Ramayana (1969); Sublime Delight Through Works of Art from Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art(2007); and Bidri Ware & Damascene Work in Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art (2011).
Over the past sixty years many museums and collectors have avidly sought out Indian miniature paintings, whose poetic imagery, vibrant colours, and meticulous workmanship have an immediate, even dazzling visceral appeal. Along with the growing enthusiasm for this art was a burst of scholarly activity that has identified with ever-greater precision various styles, themes, and artists. Curiously, however, relatively little attention has been devoted to drawings by the same painters. The main reason for this neglect is the lack of access to good drawings. a fact that has meant that drawings have generally neither been studied in adequate depth nor properly published. Although Ananda Coomaraswamy, the pioneer of Indian art studies, expressed the hope that his two monographs of Indian Drawings (published in 1910 and 1912) would be "welcomed as a revelation of an exquisite but hitherto almost unknown art," his publications did not have the desired effect; largely because brilliant examples were unavailable to him. Even during the early 1950s, when the art market was flooded with miniatures from Indian palace storehouses and English country homes, the supply of good drawings was still meagre, for drawings traditionally remained part of the artist's stock and were not delivered to the patrons of their paintings. In 1945, I joined Kala Bhawan in Santiniketan to study painting. The emphasis placed on drawing by my late gurus, Nandalal Bose, Benode Behari Mukherji, and Ram Kinkar, as well as their own skilful sensitive sketches convinced me that a good drawing was fundamental to the process that resulted in a fine painting. Soon after I finished my studies at Kala Bhawan in 1949, I was posted in Chamba, an important old centre of Pahari painting in Himachal Pradesh. I saw there a large number of miniatures in the Bhuri Singh Museum, and was greatly inspired by their visual power and charm. Feeling the urge to own some examples, I sought the assistance of some local artists, who introduced me in turn to Hiralal (Fig 1) and Billo Mistry, two descendants of old Chamba painters. When I asked Hiralal if he had miniatures, he told me that paintings by his forefathers had been given away to the local raja or affluent people, so he had only a collection of ancestral drawings. He then showed me about five hundred examples. I was amazed at the sight of such a visual treasure and could hardly contain my joy. He allowed me to study all of them for a week. I was tempted to acquire several of them, but when I asked to buy fifty, he was reluctant to sell any. Eventually, however, he was persuaded to allow me to have just ten drawings, thinking that the rest might ultimately be of use to his young son Mahesh, who might one day take up painting as a profession. A few days later, I met Billo Mistry. I was fortunate to acquire from him about one hundred ancestral drawings made for a Ramayana series of c.1735 and a Bhagavata Purana series of c.1760. Both Hiralal and Billo Mistry set an asking price of only rupees five for each drawing. I found the works very inexpensive and happily bought them. In 1957, during my second visit to Chamba along with my wife, Kamla, I met Hiralal again and bought from him a number of drawings from the same group with which he had been unwilling to part in 1949. They consisted of some drawings in the Chamba style and others made in Chamba in Mughal and Deccani styles. Still other examples were actual Mughal drawings brought to Chamba by his ancestors. In the first major exhibition dedicated to Indian drawings, Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches, 16th Through 19th Centuries, organized in 1976 by the late Stuart Cary Welch at the Asia House Gallery, New York, some Pahari drawings I had collected at Chamba and some others I acquired later on were displayed and published in the exhibition catalogue. In 1989, I displayed still others from our recently established Museum in an exhibition entitled Indian Drawings, 16th-19th Century at the CMC Art Gallery, New Delhi. Several Pahari drawings were among those published in the slender exhibition catalogue. Many scholars and connoisseurs of Indian painting who saw this exhibition and came to Hyderabad to see the Museum's collection of paintings and drawings urged me and Shri Naozar Chenoy, the Trustee-Secretary of the Museum, to publish a separate catalogue of our rare holdings of drawings for the benefit of scholars, collectors, and lovers of Indian miniature painting. Together we convinced the other Trustees of the Museum that it was our responsibility to do so. Eventually, it was decided that the Museum would publish the entire collection of drawings, consisting of works by master artists of the Rajasthani, Pahari, Mughal, and Deccani schools. Seven years ago, when John Seyller, an eminent scholar of Indian painting, visited me in Hyderabad, I mentioned to him the Museum's plan to publish catalogues of its paintings and drawings. He enthusiastically agreed to join me as a co-author of two catalogues, Pahari Drawings and Pahari Paintings in the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art. Thereafter, during each of his five subsequent visits to Hyderabad, we spent a glorious week or two of day long sessions discussing all aspects of the chosen schools and refining the text of each entry. On the occasion of the publication of this catalogue, the inaugural volume in the series of catalogues of the Museum's drawings and the first fruits of our own collaborative labours, I offer my profound thanks to him for his boundless dedication to the Museum and its mission of furthering the knowledge of Indian art. Several people have helped give this catalogue its present shape. Foremost among them is my wife, Kamla, who was with me during my second visit to Chamba in 1957, where she joined me in selecting drawings from Hiralal. She accompanied me in my collecting adventures, and with her keen and instinctive eye for art, was of great help to me in acquiring good works. Moreover, she assisted me in the conservation of all works in the Museum. I wish also to express my gratitude to those who allowed me to acquire these drawings. Apart from the aforementioned Hiralal and Billo Mistry, several other dealers and collectors provided me drawings. Among them are the late Dharampal Vaid of Chamba, Shri C.L. Bharany of New Delhi, and the late Shri Harish Chander Agarwal and his son Shri Kishan Chander Agarwal, of Hyderabad. I deeply appreciate Shri A. Narayan Rao, who ungrudgingly and lovingly typed some of the text of this catalogue, Anna Seyller, who helped with the technical formatting of the text, and Shri Vijay Sharma of Chamba for translating the takri inscriptions on these drawings and providing useful information. Thanks, too.
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