Rajput painting, painting of the regional Hindu courts during the Mughal era, roughly from the end of the 16th century to the middle of the 19th century. Traditionally, Rajput painting is further divided into Rajasthan and Pahari painting which flourished in two different areas "far apart from each other in terms of distance but all under the rule of Rajput chiefs, and bound together by a common culture".
The nomenclature 'Rajput painting' was introduced by Ananda Coomaraswamy in his book Rajput Painting, Being an Account of the Hindu Paintings of Rajasthan and the Panjab Himalayas (1916), which was the first monography of the subject. Rajput painting evolved from the Hindu painting of the 16th century (sometimes called "Early Rajput Painting"), which substantially changed under the influence of Mughal painting. Different styles of Rajput painting range from conservative idioms that preserve traditional values of bright colour, flatness and abstract form (e.g. Mewar and Basohli) to those showing greater Mughal impact in their refinement and cool colour (e.g. Bikaner and Kangra). But despite absorption of the new techniques and subjects from Mughals (and also, to a lesser extent, from European and Deccan painting), Rajput artists never lost their own distinct identity, which manifested itself especially in Indian predilection to universal rather than individual. Local styles of Rajput painting developed in the 17th century, when Mughal painting dominated over Indian art. In the 18th century, Mughal school was only one of the many among regional schools of painting and Rajput art was much more important in its overall output. In the 19th century, with political decline of Rajput states and rising influence of Western painting and photography, Rajput painting gradually ceased to exist.
Background: Painting in North India before Mughals and their influence
Jain tradition
Dominant form of the Indian painting in late medieval period was manuscript painting and the earliest Indian books were "usually on pages made from leaves of the talipot palm; long and horizontal in format, the pages were pierced and threaded onto cords tied between wooden covers. The occasional illustrations were small and usually square". The term for such a book is pustaka in Sanskrit and pothī in Hindi. Despite the fact that paper became plentiful in India after about 1400 traditional format change very slowly and usually the loose paper pages were wrapped in cloth and tied in bundles.
Painting in North India at the beginning of the 16th century can be divided into three different categories: Jain (Western Indian), Hindu (Early Rajput) and Muslim. First of these was common in Western India (especially Gujarat) and the texts illustrated usually relate to Jainism, with copies of the Kalpa Sūtra and Kālakācārya Kathā commissioned most often. In Western Indian miniatures colors were very limited and applied in flat, clearly bounded areas; profiles, postures and gestures were sharp and angular; and compositions were broken down into small compartments with strongly colored flat backgrounds. These can be taken as general characteristics of indigenous Indian painting styles of the time – distinctive traits of Jain painting include the wiry, vital line drawing, far less robust and energetic colors than in Hindu group and the very repetitive character of the scenes in many manuscripts (see illustration of A King converses). Foreign men are sometimes depicted with the three-quarter profile and formulaic facial features common in Persian painting. However, this visible awareness of other styles did not necessarily lead to the development of new attitudes to pictorial space or compositional format.
Hindu tradition
Hindu painting on the eve of the Mughal period is best represented by a series of Bhagavata Purana illustrations. In a Krishna defeats Trinavarta (see illustration) among the already mentioned features common with Jain tradition we find also that all figures are in profile and each figure is constructed according to the same formula. We are dealing with types, not individuals. There is no attempt at a three -dimensional space and the artist is indifferent to technical expertise or the subtlety and variety of colors. We are presented with multiple moments or aspects of the event, but the successive episodes are not in visually linear sequence, because there is no attempt to make the moment seem unique, not to separate and distinguish individual forms in an empty space.
A second important series of illustrations from this period is associated with the erotic poem Caurapañcāśikā. It was discovered earlier than Bhagavata Purana series and "has given its name to this broad stylistic category of pre-Mughal Hindu painting in art-historical writings". Miniatures from the Caurapañcāśikā follow most of the traits of the Bhagavata Purana illustrations. Space is used metaphorically, not to provide a convincing physical setting, and objects do not seem to obey physical laws. The textiles are almost weightless. Women with impossibly large bosoms, tiny waists, and ample hips perfectly accord with traditional Indian ideals of beauty. Illustrations of Caurapañcāśikā are far more sophisticated in style than those of Bhagavata Purana, but it is the latter that was more influential at the Mughal court. Style of this group of works was called recently "Early Rajput Style".
Muslim tradition of the sultanate period
Muslims brought with them books on paper, bound along a spine, usually vertical and often encased in leather covers. Islamic rulers were interested in illustrated copies of Persian texts and for them painting was a court art. Books became an emblem of wealth and power, which meant that Muslim patrons demanded opulence of materials, fine craftsmanship, and continual stylistic and narrative novelty, for painting was also a form of personal entertainment. There is no evidence that Jain or Hindu painters had earlier worked exclusively for particular or single patrons, which may not have been economically feasible. "The Muslim rulers, however, formed kitabkhanas (library workshops) within their palaces, and artists and artisans often worked for specific employers. [...] Thus they painted to please a single person, rather than to reflect the general needs of a community, and this demanded sensitivity and responsiveness to a patron's individual and often highly idiosyncratic taste."
The great centre of Islamic art in Central India at the end of the 15th century was Malwa Sultanate under the rule of Ghiyath Shah (r. 1469–1500), who commissioned Nimatnama-i-Nasiruddin-Shahi, the most important royal manuscript made in his capital, Mandu. Miniatures of Nimatnama are good examples of Islamic painting in India of this era. The style of Nimatnama illustrations derives in part from contemporary painting in Iran, but one of its important aspects is its provincialism. "Some pages seem simply naive continuations of Iranian style, probably by Indian artists who did not fully understand the Iranian visual conventions they were directed to adopt. Other Nimatnama folios present a far more important combination of Iranian and Indian stylistic traits, and seems to predict the artistic character of early Mughal manuscripts." Mixture of Jain, Hindu and Persian styles in Nimatnama failed to produce any influential style of its own, but its best illustrations are extremely animated, both visually and narratively, and its characters are among the liveliest figures in Indian painting.
Two of the most important undated and unprovenanced Sultanate manuscripts of the period (one in CSMVS and another in John Rylands Library) are both of the same text, the Chandayana of Maulana Da'ud. The silhouetted figures with profile heads of the Nimatnama reoccur, but this time always standing on bases in front of a decorative background. Contrary to Iranian tradition every single folio bears a painting and "the density of narrative illustration is such that the text has become superfluous".
Mughal painting
The first evidence of Mughal artistic patronage emerges from the time of Humayun (1530–1556), who hired Iranian painters such as Abd al-Samad and Mir Sayyid Ali. Their works for the new patron were almost entirely Safavid in character, flat and highly decorative, with similarly sized figures spread throughout the page. The beginning of a distinctive Mughal style is associated with the Akbar Hamzanama, a manuscript of the Persian epic Hamzanama which originally consisted of 1400 69 cm × 54 cm paintings on cloth and took 15 or more years to complete (from around 1562 to 1577). Both the physical appearance of the manuscript and its extent are unprecedented in Islamic painting. Such large cycles of paintings, however, and the arrangement of every folio being illustrated are found in earlier Indian manuscripts. The earliest paintings of the Akbar Hamzanama remain Persian in character, with text panels at top and bottom, and painting treated as integral part of the text. The later paintings fill the entire page and they burst with energy and physicality (see illustration of Amr Disguised as Mazmahil the Surgeon Practices Quackery on the Sorcerers of Antali). They have started the integration of foreground and background and concentrate on the major figures of the story.
The next step in evolution of Mughal art involve influence of European painting, mainly through prints. In Seated Man by Basawan (see illustration) we can see how he use European figural modelling and consequent sense of spatial depth to explore physiognomy, character, texture of clothing and the way person positioned herself in space. When in Persian tradition human figure was an excuse to explore the beauty and independent expressiveness of line, for Mughal artists lines became tools to interpret personality.
This new Mughal naturalism further developed under the patronage of Jahangir (1605–1627). For Govardhan even figures in the marginal decoration of album (Muraqqa) pages where powerful character studies and "this flesh and blood quality [...] separate Mughal painting from its Iranian roots" because "it is Mughal painting alone that consistently recognizes, acknowledges and investigates the individuality and personal uniqueness of the people it portrays". An extreme example of Jahangir's unbounded curiosity and predilection to uncompromised naturalism is The Dying Inayat Khan by Balchand (see illustration), which exist only because a dying man, whose appearance seems interesting to the emperor, was made to pose for his portrait.
Moreover, Jahangir was interested in particular and recognizable character of the work of his artists. In his Jahangirnama he boasted that "my liking for painting and my practice in judging it have arrived at such a point that when any work is brought before me, either of deceased artists or those of the present day, without the names being told me, I say on the spur of the moment that is the work of such and such a man". This led to cultivation of individual artistic styles, and certain painters developed areas of expertise: Mansur as an animal and flower painter, Abu'l-Hasan and Bishandas as imperial portraitists, and Govardhan as a painter of holy men, musicians and eccentrics. Still, the pervasive mood was "the overwhelming dominance of the naturalism demanded by Jahangir". Even paintings of court scenes, like Nauroz durbar of Jahangir by Abu'l-Hasan (see illustration), were occasions to many individual studies of human characters.
Since the mid-16th century, many Mughal painters had been trying to bring painting closer to empirically perceived reality. This Mughal concern for objective distinctiveness and human individuality was a radical shift within both Islamic and Indian traditions, which celebrate rather universal than particular. Equally new was the idea that individual artist's styles should be considered recognizable and important. But already at the end of Jahangir's reign in Mughal art becomes visible another, more traditional trend. In paintings like Jahangir Preferring a Sufi Shaikh to Kings by Bichitr (Freer, F1942.15a) more important than description of rational, natural world becomes symbolic imagery and imperial decorum. This new style dominates during the reign of Shah Jahan (r. 1628–1658) and it culminates in paintings made for his Padshahnama. When for Abu'l-Hasan scene from imperial court was an occasion to delight in the variety and quirks of individual appearances, Bichitr in his The accession of Shah Jahan (see illustration) simply demonstrate the power of state ritual. In fact, the whole manuscript of Padshahnama abounds with such ritual enactments of imperial power and is far less personal than paintings from Jahangirnama. Court scenes are rendered static by the lack of contact between the Emperor, depicted as a superior being, always in profile and placed high on his throne platform, and the courtiers below. There is much less individuation of human figures, who are defined rather by their roles in society, than personal traits, and "it is a clear return to more traditionally Indian ideas of individual's subservience to an ultimate unity, and a major change of direction for the Mughal tradition. [...] it is no longer what separates [sic] men but what unites them that is important."