KANGRA PAINTING

Kangra paintings developed between the 18th and 19th centuries in the
region Kangra of Himachal Pradesh. It became popular after the Basohli
school of painting declined or it faded in the mid-18th century and soon
produced such a large number of paintings, both in terms of content and
volume, that the Pahari painting school came to be known as Kangra
paintings.

Pahari paintings, as the name suggests, were paintings executed in the hilly
regions of India, in the sub-Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh.
The Kangra School is known for its development and modification of Pahari
paintings. Though the main centres of Kangra paintings are Guler, Basohli,
Chamba, Nurpur, Bilaspur and Kangra. Later on this style also reached
Mandi, Suket, Kullu, Arki, Nalagarh and Tehri Garhwal and now are
collectively known as Pahari painting.

HISTORY OF KANGRA PAINTINGS

This great art originated in Guler State, a small hill state in the Lower
Himalayas in the first half of the 18th century when a family of Kashmiri
painters trained in Mughal painting Style sought shelter at the court of Guler
King. As the new people mingled with the local artists and were greatly
influenced by the atmosphere of the hills, new style of art emerged. The rise
of Guler Paintings can be traced all the way back to Kangra's early stages.

So the Kangra style and art reached its zenith during the reign of Maharaja
Sansar Chand Katoch (r.1776–1824) who was a great patron of Kangra art.
Maharaja Sansar Chand was an ardent devotee of Krishna and used to
commission artists who could paint on the subjects based on the loves and
life of Krishna.

Instead of painting flattering portraits of their masters, the artists adopted

themes of eternal love between Radha and Krishna. The paintings were
naturalistic in nature and fresh colours were used. Minerals and vegetables
were used to create the colours, which had an enamel-like shine. Landscapes
with lush greenery, brooks, and springs were common images on the
miniatures.
Delicacy of line, brilliance of colour, and minuteness of decorative elements
are all characteristics of the Kangra style. The most distinguishing element of
this style is the outline of the feminine face, with a straight nose in line with
the forehead, which became popular in the 1790s. Most popular themes that
were painted were the Bhagvata Purana, Gita Govinda, Nala Damayanti,
Bihari Satsai, Ragamala and Baramasa. In addition Fattu, Purkhu and
Khushala are important painters of the Kangra style.

THEMES
The series of Bhagvata Purana paintings is one of the greatest achievements
of Kangra artists. It is remarkable for its effortless naturalism, deft and vivid
rendering of figures in unusual poses that crisply portray dramatic scenes.
The representation of Ashta Nayikas, or eight heroines, is one of the most
popular themes in Pahari art, with women depicted in various moods and
emotional states.

One of the Kangra theme is Gita Govinda which is Manaku’s most

outstanding set of works. Composed by Jayadeva, Gita Govinda begins with
the description of how Radha and Krishna fall in love on the banks of river
Yamuna. 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 sometime, 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 off the longing of 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 in the painting is rather human.

Another famous painting, 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.
The focal theme of Kangra painting is Shringar (the erotic sentiment). Bhakti
cult was the driving force and the love story of Radha and Krishna was the
main source of spiritual experience, which was also the base for the visual
expression.
As mentioned earlier the Bhagavata Purana and Gita Govinda by Jayadeva
were the most popular subjects dealing with the legends and the amorous
plays of Radha and Krishna symbolising soul’s devotion to God. In some
miniatures, the blue-God Krishna is seen dancing in the lush woodlands and
every maiden’s eye are drawn to him. Krishna subjects, known commonly as
Krishna-lila predominate, while the themes of love, inspired by the nayaks
and nayikas and baramasa enjoyed great favour.
Kangra paintings influenced by the Bhagavad Purana portrayed incidents
from the life of the young Krishna, against the Brindavan forest or river
Yamuna. The other popular themes were the stories of Nala and Damayanti,
and those from Keshavadasa’s Baramasa.

SPECTATORSHIP AND FEMINITY IN KANGRA STYLE PAINTINGS

Women at their toilette in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
depicted in the so-called Kangra style, use intricate visual rhetoric to highlight
their heroines' exceptional beauty and charm. The paintings emphasise and
sanctify female beauty by being built in the style of religious imagery and
scenarios of kings holding court.
The paintings thematic structure, expressed through the actions and gestures
of the women's attendants, establishes a connection between the women
depicted in the paintings and their viewers. Based on the spectator's gaze,
this interaction places the viewer in the role of the woman's lover and
devotion. Different viewers might have reacted differently to the heroine's look
of sanctity in this connection.
Kangra pictures of women with their attendants examine the nature of looking
by combining the spectator's gaze with that of the woman's admirer, providing
vital insight into diverse modes of spectatorship in the Pahari courts as well
as the ways Kangra painters would have regarded their own art. The
sentiment of love remained the inspiration and the central theme of Pahari
painting. The depictions of the legendary lovers, were set against an
architectural background with walls, balconies and windows.
In paintings, sakhi (friend) mediates between the lovers through the agency of
a letter, conjuring up an image of the absent lover and a scenario of
separation. In the realm of painting, the sakhi's role as mediator was often
expressed by placing her near windows and doors. Standing at windows or
doors, the sakhi mediates between the world of freedom and the confinement
of the court. The movement between the court and the hills is dramatized in
Kangra paintings by a stylistic division made between the landscape and the
palace.
The attendants in paintings create a unique setting with their motions and
gestures as they mediate between the inside of the palace and the outside of
the picture, where the lover's eye and the viewer's eye merge into one. The
nayika's attendants incorporate the function of the spectator as viewer and
the function of the artist as exhibitor into the painting by staring at her and
showing her to her male admirer.
The nayika's attendants' mediating movements are strengthened by
underlying architectural changes that take the viewer's eye from his
threedimensional world into the painted space of the painting. The edge of a
parapet, a railing, a step, or an archway appears frequently at the frame's
boundaries to suggest that the picture extends beyond itself.
The nayika's attendants' gestures and stances define a zone of transition
between the spectator's real world and the flat, ethereal atmosphere that
immediately surrounds the nayika. The companions of the nayika appear to
be in three dimensions. They turn and gesture, standing one in front of the
other and moving fluidly and variably like women in the real world, holding
fans, waterpots, or candles, rolling sandalwood, or expressing astonishment.
The nayika, unlike her buddies, prefers to sit alone so that no pillar, object, or
person blocks our view of her.
The nayika's attendants make their mistress into an object to be reverently
attended by surrounding her, serving her, and gazing upon her. The
composition of paintings depicting the nayika and her attendants follows a
pattern seen in Rajput portrayals of gods and rulers, as well as Mughal
depictions of the emperor. Attendants emphasise the centre of the picture as
a focus of attention and importance by standing to either side of a figure in a
framed space.
In a representation of Raga Hindola at the National Museum, New Delhi ,
Krishna's attendants gaze upon him from beyond the frame of the swing and
offer him their services. The sides of the painting belong to the ' servants, the
figures who look, while the centre belong to the deity, whose sanctity is
reinforced by their looking. However, as Molly E. Aitken has asked what is the
function of such a composition when the nayika sits in the position of the ruler
or deity? To answer this the attendants or sakhi bring together a devotional
with an erotic view of her beauty.
In two typical depictions of the young lady's toilette, one from the Chandigarh
Museum and the other from the Kanoria collection, a maid scrubs lac from the
nayika's feet. In these paintings, the attendants behind the nayika hold up a
white sheet to shield the young woman's nudity from prying male eyes.
The sheet works as a smaller, internal frame that isolates the nayika from the
broader area of the painting and shows her to the painting's spectator,
framing her rather than concealing her, by duplicating the lines of the picture's
outer margins. As a result, the cloth's square resembles the outline of a
shrine surrounding an icon or a picture within a picture.
The drape that hides and reveals the nayika's naked beauty functions
similarly to the darshan curtain that temple attendants raise and lower to
purify the object of gaze. The sheet that frames the nayika converts her into
an object of worship, much as the outlines of a shrine that frame the temple
deity. Who, however, is worthy of veneration? Men are the ones who stand
out the most.
Male eyes are implied in Kangra paintings in a variety of ways, whether
visible or not. Male faces are frequently seen in side windows or doors. In a
painting from the Chandigarh collection, an attendant holds up a cloth to
protect the nayika from the man peering at her from an upper window.
However, the sheet provides dubious protection since, though it conceals the
nayika from her peeping Krishna, it reveals her to us, the viewers. The
concealing sheet lets the viewer see what the lover longs to see, implicating
the viewer in the lover's desire for the nayika.
It's worth noting that these paintings honour the woman's beauty rather than
her persona. A maid holds a mirror to the nayika's face in a number of photos,
while her companions decorate their mistress's limbs. In these images, the
nayika becomes the subject of her own gaze as she looks in the mirror.
Nayika glances into a mirror that repeats and frames her image in a
Cleveland Museum artwork. She is the subject of several gazes: her own, her
lover's (which is focused on her from a window above), and ours, for which
the fabric and the mirror frame her picture sequentially.
In addition, the nayika's face, hair, body look no different from the faces, hair
and bodies of the women around her. It is only through those structures in the
painting which appear to sanctify the nayika that the viewer can even
perceive her physical superiority.
However, in stark contrast to her attendants more natural gestures, the
brilliant artificiality of the nayika, the languid lines of her posturing figure, the
flat, flowing black of her hair, the saturated colours of her lehanga and chunni,
the perfect, stylized outline of her profile, and the gold patterns that cling to
the surface of the painting celebrate the perfection of the painter's hand,
brush, colour, and design as much as much or more than the perfections of a
real woman.

STYLE AND FEATURES OF KANGRA PAINTINGS

In Kangra painting we find a mix of folk styles in Rajput, Mughal and Punjabi.
As Aurangzeb drove the Hindu artists of his court from the state, they took
shelter in neighbouring states. This art has grown from them and has many
styles.
One striking feature of Kangra paintings is the verdant greenery it depicts.
The Style is naturalistic, and great attention is paid to detail. The foliage
depicted is vast and varied. This is made noticeable by using multiple shades
of green. The Kangra paintings feature flowering plants and creepers, leafless
trees, rivulets and brooks. The Kangra artists adopted various shades of the
primary colours and used delicate and fresher hues. For instance, they used
a light pink on the upper hills to indicate distance.

Kangra paintings depict the feminine charm in a very graceful manner. Facial
features are soft and refined. The female figures are exceptionally beautiful.
Later Kangra paintings also depicted nocturnal scenes, and storms and
lightning. The paintings were often large and had complex compositions of
many figures and elaborate landscapes. Towns and house clusters were
often depicted in the distance. The Kangra painters used colours made of
vegetable and mineral extracts. They employed cool and fresh colours.

In the present time, The Kangra Arts Promotion Society() an NGO at

Dharamshala Himachal Pradesh is working for the promotion of this art which
is at the verge of extinction today. This NGO is running a school to train
young boys and girls in this art. It also runs a workshop where genuine
Kangra Paintings are made on traditional handmade paper using only mineral
and vegetable colours.

The Kangra painting is unique to the place where it was born and raised.
Kangra is meaningful because of the colourful background they put. The
technique in Kangra painting is minimal. The painter uses his art to balance it.
Female-men’s organs, hills are often portrayed in astonishing ways of
emotions to make them living works that do not get bored. It feels like the
eyes of the hero are moving. The codes are very rare. The painter had full
freedom and had the opportunity to film it in accordance with his inspiration.
This freedom is due to the diversity of images. The main elements of the
Kangra painting are drawing design, bright color and ultradelicate
decorations. For this the painter used a very delicate and soft brush.

CHALLENGES

The constantly changing social, economic, physiographic scenarios of a time

highly affect the style, characteristic and imagery of paintings. The earliest
example of this can be seen with the coming of the Mughals. With their
coming, a new cultural cult was created. There was a shift in technique and
subject matter in Indian miniature art, when the expert painters from Iran laid
base at the Mughal courts and with time, the change has been constant with
imagery from the changing world becoming part of these paintings. The
commissioners of Kangra paintings have also gone down in number and the
religious attribute associated with it has also trickled.

CONCLUSION –

As M. S. Randhawa said that Kangra art is language of human love. Kangra

artists dealt with the eternal theme of human love expressed in the legend of
Radha and Krishna. Whenever lovers are shown whether in nayaka-nayika or
Bramasa pictures, they are usually in the form of Radha and Krishna who are
the ideal lovers. Above all these paintings are the visual records of Vaishnava
culture.