ÿþ<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd"> <html><head><title>The Sampradaya Sun - Independent Vaisnava News - Feature Stories - January 2012 </title> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=EmulateIE7"> </head> <body bgcolor="white" width=800 link="#990000" alink="#990000" vlink="#000088"> <table width=750 border=1 bordercolor="#CC9933" bordercolordark="990000" bordercolorlight="CC9933" cellpadding=10 cellspacing=0 bgcolor="white"> <tr> <td valign=top><font face="verdana"><font size=2><P> <center><img src="../head1.gif" width=605 height=99 border=0 usemap="#nav1"></center> <center><table width=700 border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 bgcolor="white"> <tr> <td valign=top colspan=2><font face="verdana"><font size=2> <MAP NAME="nav1"> <AREA COORDS="23,17,110,82" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../index.htm"> <AREA COORDS="1,87,46,98" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../../media/mantra.wav" target="_blank"> <AREA COORDS="76,86,111,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../news/news.htm"> <AREA COORDS="121,86,189,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../editorials/editorials.htm"> <AREA COORDS="199,86,256,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../features/features.htm"> <AREA COORDS="266,86,329,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../sunblogs/sunblogs.htm"> <AREA COORDS="339,86,412,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../classifieds/classifieds.htm"> <AREA COORDS="421,86,466,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../events/events.htm"> <AREA COORDS="476,86,539,97" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../recipes/recipes.htm"> <AREA COORDS="549,86,796,604" SHAPE="rect" HREF="../../podcasts/podcasts.htm"> </MAP> <BR> </td> </tr> <tr> <td width=800> <font face="verdana"><font size=2> <P> <P><BR><p> <blockquote> </center> <FONT SIZE=+2><p style='text-align:justify'> Vedic Art: Indian Miniature Painting, Part 28 </font></font> <P> <font face="verdana"><font size=2><p style='text-align:justify'> BY: SUN STAFF </font></font> <br><br> <center><img src="miniatures135.jpg" width=534 height=680 border=1> <P> <font face="verdana"><font size=-2><B> The Hour of Cowdust <BR> Nainsukh Family, c. 1810 </b></font></font></center> <P><BR><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2><B>Jan 31, 2012 &#151; CANADA (SUN) &#151; A serial presentation of India's artistic legacy in paintings, sculpture and temple architecture. </b> </font></font><p><BR><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=+1>THE PAHARI SCHOOLS<BR> 17th to 19th Centuries<BR><BR> KANGRA SCHOOL </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2> Today we continue our survey of the last primary school of miniature paintings in this series  the Pahari School. The Pahari region spans the states of Himachal Pradesh, parts of the Punjab, Jammu/Kashmir, and Garhwal in Uttar Pradesh. Including under this primary school thus far, we have discussed the Basohli and Guler Schools. Following the survey of Kangra School paintings, we will close the series with one final sub-school  the folk style of paintings of Kulu-Mandi. </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>On the timeline, the Kangra School is said to have followed the Guler School in development, emerging as a third phase of Pahari painting, in the last quarter of the 18th Century. In our <a href="http://www.harekrsna.com/sun/features/01-12/features2342.htm" target="_blank"><B>last segment</b></a>, on the Guler School, we mentioned the close connection between the long-standing Guler painters and the successive Kangra style. <P><BR><center><img src="miniatures137.jpg" width=680 height=460 border=1> <P> <font face="verdana"><font size=-2><B> The Hour of Cowdust (detail) </b></font></font></center> </font></font><p><BR><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>The dominant characteristic that defines the Kangra School is easily traced from the Guler  a fine, delicate and sophisticated line of drawing merged with a naturalist approach to the content. The school was named for its similarity in likeness to the paintings of Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra. We find women painted in profile to have the nose quite inline with the forehead, the eyes long and narrow, and the chin sharp. Hair is treated as a flat mass, and there is little modeling of figures. </font></font><p><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>The Kangra style flourished in many places throughout the region: Kangra, near the northern border of Himachal Pradesh, Guler, Basohli, Chamba, Jammu, Nurpur, Garhwal, etc. Among the finest Kangra miniatures are those attributed to the Nainsukh family, whose members were Hindu artists trained in the Mughal style and patronized by the Kangra rajas. <P><BR><center><img src="miniatures138.jpg" width=680 height=501 border=1> <P> <font face="verdana"><font size=-2><B> The Acolyte and the Jujube Tree <br> Nainsukh, Guler, Punjab Hills, c.1760 </b></font></font></center> </font></font><p><BR><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>Other Pahari artists were patronized by the Punjabi leader, Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Sikh nobility in the early 19th century. They produced many portraits and miniatures in a modified version of the Kangra style, and these continued to be executed through the middle of the 19th century. <P><BR><center><img src="miniatures136.jpg" width=680 height=501 border=1> <P> <font face="verdana"><font size=-2><B> The Disrobing of Draupadi <br> Nainsukh, c.1765 </b></font></font></center> </font></font><p><BR><p style='text-align:justify'><font face="verdana"><font size=2>The content of many Kangra painting is <I>rasa-lila</i>, and the Bhakti cult themes of Radha and Krishna's pastimes were among the most favoured by Kangra artists. Many illustrations for Bhagavata Purana and Gita-govinda are found, along with Ragamala and other familiar Vaisnava texts. In our next segment, we'll cover the succession of Kangra leaders who were most responsible for the development of this school of art, and in particular, the grandson who infused the Kangra School with his own devotion for Sri Sri Radha Krishna. <P><BR><center><img src="miniatures139.jpg" width=680 height=447 border=1> <P> <font face="verdana"><font size=-2><B> Abhisarika-nayika (Rushing to an Assignation in the Monsoon) <br> Nainsukh Family, c.1765 </b></font></font></center> <B> <BR><P><BR> <center><a href="../../index.htm"><img src="../../leftarrow.gif" width=20 height=15 border=0 alt="Homepage"></a> <P><BR> <!-- ========================FEATURE STORY===================== --> <BLOCKQUOTE></I> <font face="verdana"><font size=-2><center> <a href="../../index.htm">The Sun</a> <a href="../../news/news.htm">News</a> <a href="../../editorials/editorials.htm">Editorials</a> <a href="../../features/features.htm">Features</a> <a href="../../sunblogs/sunblogs.htm">Sun Blogs</a> <a href="../../classifieds/classifieds.htm">Classifieds</a> <a href="../../events/events.htm">Events</a> <a href="../../recipes/recipes.htm">Recipes</a> <a href="../../podcasts/podcasts.htm">PodCasts</a> <P> <a href="../../about.htm">About</a> <a href="../../submit.htm">Submit an Article</a> <a href="mailto:sun@harekrsna.com">Contact Us</a> <a href="../../ads/advertise.htm">Advertise</a> <a href="../../../index.htm">HareKrsna.com</a> </blockquote> <P> <center><b>Copyright 2005, 2012, HareKrsna.com. 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