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A Brief Introduction to Pahari Painting
The modern Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal once comprised the group of small Rajput states which possessed the means and the genius to create some of the greatest of Indian paintings, in the seventeenth, eighteenth and the first years of the nineteenth centuries. Portraiture was always of importance for those Rajas who supported the arts, but so also was the illustration of manuscripts, whether of sacred or poetic texts that allowed the artist to express the emotions or rasas that underlay Indian painting.
Click here to continue reading this extract from J.P. Losty’s essay first published in Paintings for the Pahari Rajas, Francesca Galloway, 2020.
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A Prince with a falcon, perhaps Miao Kailashpat Dev of BandraltaBandralta or Mankot, attributed to the Master at the Court of Mankot, possibly Meju, c. 1700-20Folio: 21 x 16 cm; Miniature: 17 x 12.5 cm, within dark brown and crimson margins and a red border
Opaque pigments and gold on paper -
Two unhappy Women - Folio from a Ragamala seriesArki, Baghal, c.1700
Gouache on paper, text on reverse with 13 lines of script, unrelated to the subject of the painting.
An old unidentified European signature on the reverse and in a 20th century hand along the back border in English 'Ragini Andhiari of Malkaus'
Folio 21.3 x 18.4 cm; painting 19.5 x 16.7 cm -
Goddess KaliMandi, c. 1750
Opaque pigments on paper25 x 16.7 cm (including red border) -
Hanuman jumps back across the ocean from Lanka to Mount MahendraFrom Book V of the ‘Second’ Guler Ramayana
By a Guler artist, c. 1800–10
Opaque pigments and gold on paperFolio 25 x 35.5 cm; painting 20 x 30.2 cm within a blue margin with gold scrolling foliage and a wide pink outer border -
Vishnu and Shri embracingDrawing from a set of preparatory drawings for the 'Second Guler' or 'Tehri-Garhwal' Gitagovinda
Original outlines attributed to Nainsukh, c. 1765, with additions by his sons and nephews
Brush drawing in red sanguine and dark brown with pink-yellow washFolio 19 x 28 cm -
Rama and Sita receiving Gifts from Vibhishana, younger Brother of the Demon King Ravana, and his Retinue of DemonsFrom Book VI of the ‘Second Guler’ Ramayana
Guler, 1790–1810
Opaque pigments and gold and silver on paper, within a blue margin with gold and silver floral arabesque and a pink outer border with a red rule25.5 x 35.8 cm -
RasalilaFolio from a dispersed Harivamsha series, numbered 86 on the reverse
Punjab Hills, Kangra, attributed to Purkhu, c.1800-15
Opaque pigments and gold on paper36 x 47.2cm including border -
Krishna lures King Kalayavana to the Cave of Muchukunda where he is burnt to AshesFolio from a Bhagavata Purana series
Kangra, attributed to a follower of Purkhu, c. 1820-25
Opaque pigments with gold on paper, within narrow blue and red bordersFolio: 39 × 54 cm -
A Disheartened BelovedAttributed to Muhammadi
Mandi, c. 1840
Opaque pigments and gold on paperFolio 29.5 x 20.1 cm; painting 20 x 14 cm
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Works in Focus
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Maharao Durjan Sal of Kota (1723-56) hunting bear
Kota, c. 175048 x 108 cm, black and red line with wash and white pigment for correction on paper
From the Paul Walter Collection
This important, large scale panoramic scene, depicts Maharao Durjan Sal of Kota (1723-56) on a hunting platform shooting bear, which appear to have been freed from the pen. In this immensely lively drawing Durjan Sal and his attendant form the almost still centre while all around are scenes of intense activity. The shooting party is taking place on the rocky shore of the Chambal river. The bears are being driven by men blowing horns and waving weapons up into the rocks where they form targets for the Maharao in his tree. Other men on the other side of the drawing drive the bears down. One of the bears has been shot and is shown several times falling down the rocks in a delayed action sequence.
Hunting pictures of this sort were immensely popular in Kota royal circles. Many exist as finished paintings and even more as drawings. See Welch et al 1997 in particular as well as his other publications in which the art of drawing in Kota figures prominently. Jagdish Mittal's collection likewise has many Kota drawings (Topsfield and Mittal 2015). However, outside the Kota palace and Stuart Cary Welch's collection, now at Harvard, Kota drawings of this calibre rarely appear on the market.
Durjan Sal himself was responsible for large numbers of hunting pictures, often showing him with his queens in grand hunts; his fame as a hunter continued for several reigns, such as in the important posthumous painting in the V&A Museum dated 1778 (Archer 1959, pl. 41). For Durjan Sal and his love of hunting, see Joachim Bautze's essay in Welch et al. 1997, pp. 48-49. -
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Large Textile depicting a Scene from the Ramayana
India, Coromandel Coast for the Indonesian market, late 18th century100 x 480 cm; cotton, hand-drawn and mordant-dyed
This large and impressive textile depicts a scene from the Hindu epic the Ramayana. The story narrates the life of Rama, the 7th avatar of the Hindu deity Vishnu.
Here, the story's hero Rama battles Ravana, the ten-headed demon king of Lanka and his enemy. He is supported by his brother Lakshmana and the monkey army led by Hanuman, the son of Vayu, the god of wind, whilst Ravana has the backing of the demons. In this energetic depiction, arrows, limbs and heads fly as the battle rages for days. Rama finally shoots Ravana with the divine arrow of Brahma.
The cotton mordant-dyed technique involved applying dyes directly onto the cotton. The prevailing colours are variations of red and dark brown with vestiges of indigo. Although related in technique and style to south Indian temple cloths, these Ramayana hangings were produced on the Coromandel coast for export to Indonesia. They have been mostly recorded in Sulawesi and Bali. Some bear the stamp of the VOC, the initials of the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie). This indicates that they were manufactured pre-1800 as the trading Company went into liquidation in 1799.
Comparable examples
Other comparable examples are in The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (inv. 2024.444), the Art Gallery of New South Wales (inv. 169.2005), The Victoria and Albert Museum (inv. IS.23-1996), ROM Toronto (inv. 2016.42.2), The TAPI collection (inv. 01.183) and the British Museum (inv. 1995,1110,0.1). A small fragment is in the ACM Singapore (inv. 2009-01850, formerly in the Hollander Collection). There is a slightly different version of the same scene in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (inv. 2008.163).






