Preface of Hindu painting
I am about to commence a discourse on the Rajasthani Paintings that were predominantly influenced by the Hindu culture. This constitutes a significant segment of Indian artistic practice, impacting the exquisite Persian art that later evolved into Mughal miniatures fostering the development of Persian art, and establishing itself as an emblem of Indian artistic expression. In the preface of Hindu Rajasthani Painting, I'll discuss the background of this stream, and how it evolved sequentially.
British historians made a mistake while collecting historical evidence on Indian art. They quickly shifted their focus to studying Hindu Rajasthani Paintings after the Ajanta cave paintings, overlooking the detailed wall paintings found in different Hindu temples. Indian historians and scholars later corrected this oversight by identifying the period of creation, revealing a continuous evolution in artistic practices in India that ultimately led to the era of Rajasthani Painting.
We are well aware that the Vakataka dynasty curved up the Ajanta cave paintings. In earlier times, before Vakataka, the Satavahana dynasty made beautiful illustrations on the walls of the Bhaja caves. Historians affirmed the reign of the Vakataka dynasty was from the second century BC to the second century AD. Many kings in the historical period preserved evidence of art and culture in several eras, demonstrating their enthusiasm and support for artists, as I discussed in my earlier write-up. Despite this, many regional heads also supported artists and evolved their art practice, and as an outcome, it helped establish a particular form of art we recognized as Indian painting.
Royal rulers of several regions of Rajasthan adored artists, which resulted in numerous beautiful paintings considered the treasures of India. In my earlier write-up, I discussed manuscript art raised in Gujrat and inspired Rajasthani Hindu paintings. Indeed, sometimes those wonderful paintings are considered not made by humans but by angels.
Rajasthani paintings can be categorized into two types: Pahadi and Rajasthani. The Pahadi paintings originated from Basohli, Kangra, Guler, Nurpur, Chamba, Jammu, Poonch, Mandi, Haripur, and Tehri-gadwal, all located in the Himalayan ranges. On the other hand, Rajasthani paintings came from Jaipur, Orchha, Bikaner, Udaipur, Mathura, Ujjain, Bundela, Ambar, Ajmer, and Budi. After dimming away the impression of Buddhism in the eighth century, Hindu art culture tried to uplift in the Gupta era, however, the endeavor was not worthwhile. However, the endeavor was not eliminated and ultimately waned due to a lack of support.
The political surroundings of historical India
were not usually stable. The Rajput community safeguarded the portal of a vast country for a considerable period. Consistently attacking India by the Muslim after Mahmud, the Emperor of Ghazni in the first century AD, political turmoil started in India. The Chalukya dynasty was demolished in West India. Those were Hindus but had followed the Buddhist painting style because they loved it. In the twelfth century, someone a king(I have not found the name of the king) of the tiny state of Kashmir was the first person to declare freedom of his territory. Inspiring it, several territories in Kashmir had sovereignty at a later time. The rulers of the small royal dynasties of Himachal Pradesh originated from the lower plains and conquered several small territories within the state to establish their rule. However, they later became weak, and all of the territories regained their independence once again. But astonishingly,
no changes happened in the lives of artists during the political changes. Everyone was continuing their practice following their ancestor's heritage. We can see a crowd of several Hindu saints, artists, writers, and poets in northern India, which made impactful changes in the culture and Hindu spirituality. Later we can see some noble spiritual people like Ramanuj, and Jaidev. Ramanuj composed several Hindu scriptures, and Jaidev was famous for his outstanding scripture, Geetgovindam. Another notable person of this concerned era was Tulsidas who composed everlasting scripture named Ramchritmanas. In the fourth century, another noble figure was Ramananda, a devotee of Sri Ram, but he became famous for his disciple, Kabirdas. The everlasting poetic dictum of Saint Kabirdas took his position to a new horizon which still is adorable and followed by Indians across the country.
All the above-stated situations greatly impacted in Hindu culture, art, literature, poems, philosophy, and even our way of life. In 1485, in the eastern part of India, a noble spiritual figure who was the incarnation of Lord Krishna blew people away across India with his divine practice of Nam Sankirtan. The name of that person was Sri Chaitannyadev. The culture made a vast change in human life and people started following his doctrine with reverend soul. A pristine spiritual vibe sprayed from Bengal to Karnataka, which was also inescapable for artists, poets, and writers across India. As an outcome, we can see a vast series of spiritual paintings that contained the dalliance of Radha-Krishna, the stories of Shiva-Parvati, the loftiness of Ram-Sita, and so on. I am so moved by the way artists of this era immersed themselves in the spiritual realm and beautifully expressed Hindu philosophy in their work. The Ragamala Painting series is truly immortal and introduced a figurative form of musical tunes for the first time. It's incredible how they depicted Lord Krishna and Radha and how Lord Shiva came to represent musical tunes with such artistic imagination. This creation in Rajasthani Paintings is truly iconic!
Image Attribution
Raja Balwant Singh's vision of Krishna and Radha, by Nainsukh. ----------- (Public Domain)
Saint Kabirdas Portrait -------------By Author. (Painting is subject to copyright by the author)
Vairaba Raga demonstrated as Lord Shiva -------------------------------------- (Public Domain)
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