Pahari

One of the two influential “schools” of
Indian miniature painting, the other
being the Rajasthani. The distinctions
between schools are geographical and
thus somewhat arbitrary, since, for
example, the Basohli paintings belong
to the Pahari school, but are stylistically
closer to those of Rajasthan than to the
later Pahari style.
The Pahari style flourished in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in
the small kingdoms in the Shiwalik Hills
north and west of Delhi. It first appears
in the kingdom of Basohli, where the
influence of the Rajasthani school is the
clearest, and later developed in the kingdoms of Jammu, Guler, Garhwal, and
Kangra. The developed Pahari style differs from the Rajasthani in its emphasis
on more linear drawing—perhaps influenced by European art—and a more
restrained use of color, both features
tending to give the paintings a more lyrical feel. For further information see
W. G. Archer, Indian Painting, 1957; and
“Pahari Miniatures: A Concise History,”
in Marg, Vol. 28, No. 2, 1975.