Origin and development

The essentials

Rajasthani painting did not appear suddenly. Before it there was the western Indian style, seen in Jain manuscripts such as the Kalpasutra and Kalakacharya Katha painted in Gujarat and Rajasthan. That style used flat red backgrounds, angular figures and the typical "protruding further eye" in faces shown in three-quarter view. Around the 15th–16th century a more lively indigenous style appeared, seen in works such as the Chaurapanchasika group, with bold colours, flat panels of colour and expressive figures.

From the late 16th century the Rajput courts of Rajasthan began commissioning paintings in large numbers. Contact with the Mughal court, where many Rajput rulers served as nobles, brought new ideas: more natural modelling, portraiture and refined line. Rajasthani artists absorbed some of these ideas but kept the strong colour and poetic, devotional feeling of the earlier tradition.

Key points

• Earlier roots: western Indian (Jain) manuscript painting and the Chaurapanchasika style.
• Mewar is generally considered the earliest major centre of Rajasthani painting.
• A Ragamala set painted at Chawand in Mewar in 1605 by the artist Nisardi is an important early dated work.
• Paintings were mostly miniatures on paper, in opaque watercolour (gouache) with mineral and vegetable pigments.
• Patronage came from Rajput kings, whose taste shaped each sub-school.
• The rise of Vaishnava devotion (bhakti), especially the Krishna cult, gave painters a rich source of themes.

Exam tips

• Link "origin" questions to the western Indian style and the Chaurapanchasika group.
• Remember that Mughal influence shaped, but did not replace, the Rajasthani idiom.

Common mistakes

• Thinking Rajasthani painting was simply a copy of Mughal painting; it has its own roots and character.
• Confusing the western Indian Jain style (palm leaf/paper manuscripts) with later Rajasthani series paintings.