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).
Pahari painting is the art of the mountainous regions of the Punjab Hills, a remote and geographically distinct area in northern India. The area, estimated to be about 500 kilometres long by 160 kilometres wide, encompasses most of the territory of the modern-day Indian states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. The terrain consists of the foothills of the Himalayas and the lower-lying areas watered by "the five rivers" of the Punjab (from the Persian panj ab)-the Jhelum, Chenab, Ravi, Sutlej, and Beas-all tributaries of the Indus River. The widely used term Pahari is derived from the Hindi word pahar (mountain), so that Pahari literally means "from the mountains." The Punjab Hills were divided up into thirty-five states, a few geographically large, but most small, sometimes measuring as little as sixteen kilometres across (see cat. nos. 71 and 73). During the heyday of the Mughal empire in the first half of the 17th century, Emperors Akbar (r. 1556-1605). Jahangir (r. 1605-27), and Shahjahan (r. 1627-58) made some inroads into the region, conquering, for example, the forts at Kangra and Nurpur, and thereby affecting the political dynamics of the Punjab Hills. But most Pahari states were neither embroiled in a prolonged military confrontation with the Mughals nor fell under their direct administrative control. A few states-particularly the ones closest to the plains such as Nurpur, Mandi, and Kangra-did form tutelary alliances with the Mughals, and their Rajput rulers and princes were given military commissions and honours. These were normally hereditary positions, usually adhering to the principle of primogeniture. Younger members of the family were sometimes appointed to high offices such as the wazir (prime minister). The religious complexion of the region was somewhat different than that of the plains of northern India. The cults of Shiva and the Devi enjoyed greater dominance than elsewhere, often drawing strength from a rich tradition of folk beliefs. Vishnu was naturally an important focus of worship, especially in his ten forms known as the Dasavataras (ten avataras or "descents"). However, the cult of bhakti, which entailed ardent personal devotion to Krishna, the cowherd manifestation of Vishnu, became prevalent in the area only in the 17th century. And while Islam had no major religious following in the Punjab Hills, Sikhism, whose founder, Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1539), was born in the western part of this region, established a considerable religious and political presence there in the 18th and 19th centuries. Although some mural paintings are preserved in palaces and temples, most Pahari paintings were made on small sheets of paper, a format that has led them to be described commonly as miniatures. Many paintings were intended to be independent works of art, and required no particular physical context for their entire meaning to be accessible. Others were part of extensive painting series, a term used for a collection of illustrations prepared in accordance with a given text but kept sequentially and loosely between boards-a traditional Indian format-rather than bound physically into a bookbinding, a format employed consistently in the Islamic tradition. In most cases, some version of the text is written on the reverse, either in excerpt or in full. The language is most often Sanskrit, the classical Indian language, and the script is Devanagari (literally, "script of the gods"). which is used across most of north India. In some cases, local scripts such as takri and Sharda supplanted Devanagari. Takri in particular has many arcane local variants in the Punjab Hills, and command of it remains quite rare among scholars and collectors. Provenance, that is, where an individual painting or painting series was collected, is sometimes a clue to the source of the workshop or original patronage. This was especially true when royal collections were first being dispersed in the 1950s. Yet this information should be evaluated with caution, for such accounts are sometimes fabricated by dealers with an intent to deceive, and paintings and manuscripts were routinely sent from one court to another as part of dowries and other forms of ceremonial gifting. With the political upheaval in the early and mid 19th century, and the growing power of the Sikhs and British, this formalised system of mutual exchange came to an end. Each state had a distinctive style associated with it, sometimes lasting only a few decades, and other times more than century. At Mandi, for example, a short-lived Mughalised style flourished. the mid 17" century (cat (cat, no Icat nos. 23-27) and then all but vanished eventually being superseded by an entirely different and more enduring style associated with the long reign of Raia Sidh Sen fr. 1684-1727) primarily because individual painters occasionally moved from one territory to another, as is the case nos 29-331 There are however, many interconnections among the states during various periods in land revenue, an income supplemented with periodic gifts. Hence, artist families often had one or Some states were less wealthy, and could afford to employ only a few artists, who were normally paid from Guler to Chamba. Jasrota and Baschli, for example, in the late 18th century (cat nos. 21.76-79) in adiacent and sometimes even far-flung states. The amount and quality of painting were not directly two sons strike out in search of new patronage, a practice that accounts for related styles springing u an outsized related to the resources in the state coffers. The small state of Guter for example, plaved an role in formulating and disseminating a style throughout the Punjab Hills. Rather, if a patron took a keen interest in art and rewarded good work with appreciation and money, good painting could flourish and occurred in the tiny state of Jasrota, where the creative collaboration of patron and painter, Balwand even in states with modest territory and money. By far the most notable example of this phenomenon death in 1763, never again did he sustained that astonishing quality for some twenty years (see cat. no. 71). Though Nainsukh continuert level of inspiration. The historical documentation of Pahari painting is relatively meagre even by Indian standards, with inscriptions specifying place, date, and artist numbering no more than a few dozen rather than the hundreds and even thousands known in Rajasthani and Mughal painting. Indeed, the geographical and chronological development of painting is anchored by portraits of rulers of individual states, sometimes with the apparent age of the sitter serving as the grounds for precise dating. Nonetheless, portraits are not absolutely reliable source of information of provenance or date. In fact, it is estimated that at least a fifth of the portraits of recognisable rulers were by artists from a different state than the sovereign, as is the situation, for example, in Chamba in the late 18th century. Moreover, many portraits were made posthumously, sometimes well after the ruler's death. Most examples of this genre present notable figures in private moments of relaxation or worship rather than in public historical situations, and offer little by way of psychological insight. A subject at least as important as portraits was the illustration of such devotional texts as the Bhagavata Purana, Ramayana, Gita Govinda, and Devi Mahatmya. Illustrated copies of these texts, which could include dozens if not hundreds of paintings, typically reflected the religious affiliation of the patron and were seen as an expression of his or her piety. Also popular were illustrated versions of literary texts such as the Rasikapriya and Rasamanjari, both offering elaborate categorisations of different types of nayikas (heroines) and romantic situations. Many sets of ragamala paintings-nearly all with iconography peculiar to the region or even to individual states--were produced as well. In many cases, the male figure types in these kinds of series were based upon the likeness of the ruler of the state or his father.
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