Kangra Valley paintings record the beauty of the western Himalayan region

A visit to the western Himalayan region especially Himachal Pradesh takes you on one of the most picturesque regions in north India. The mountain or Pahari paintings of the western Himalayas are world famous of which the Kangra Valley art of the 18th and 19th centuries is most prominent. These are intricate and beautiful miniature paintings and the Guler and Kangra schools have distinct styles with overlapping features that received royal patronage. Art historian Vijay Sharma’s recent work Painting in the Kangra Valley explains how the Kangra Valley paintings have found their rightful space across the museum collections of the world.

The enduring beauty of the paintings of the Kangra Valley are a great record of the region. The workshops of these artists were located in the villages of Rajol, Nerti, Charri, Jasor, and Ustehad among other villages. Recurring themes of love, romance and devotion display both Hindu mythological and royal figures in these paintings. They also pictorially depict scenes from literary texts like the Gita Govinda, scenes of festivals and celebrations, and warfare and portraits of rulers, mystics and saints of the past. Cypress, plantain, mango groves, flowering shrubs, placid lakes, rivulets and rolling hills, birds like peacocks, cranes, doves and animals like cows, goats and horses, elephants, cheetahs in scenes of war liven up these paintings. “The natural landscape of Kangra Valley was superbly reproduced by Pahari artists”, says Sharma.

The fort at Haripur is the capital of Guler, an erstwhile principality of the Kangra Valley that was founded in the 15th century. The fort overlooks the river Banganga. The town of Haripur has many temples dedicated to Hindu gods like Rama and Krishna around the area and the paintings are often based on the legends around them.

This 18th century Guler painting depicts Raja Mahendra Pal of Basholi with his queens riding on elephants and is in the Habighorst collection, Koblenz, Germany. Unlike Mughal miniatures they do not show the luxurious life of courtly life but lay emphasis on the landscapes.

The Shakti or goddess cult has been prevalent in Kangra since ancient times as seen in the many temples in the region. This 15th century folio from the illustrated manuscript Devi Mahatmya (The Glories of the Mother Goddess) was produced in Jaisinghpur, near Kangra. The human figures and prominently large eyes, flora and fauna, architectural edifices and the hot colour schemes show a reflection of the Rajput painting tradition.

Begum Out Hunting is an unusual painting that depicts a hunting party led by Mughal noblewoman seated on an adorned horseback with a hawk on her arm. “The lush green landscapes are characteristic of the Guler school of painting”, points out Sharma. While hunting was not a favourite pastime of the royal women of the hills, the inscription on the back of this painting suggests she may have been the wife of a governor of Lahore.

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