Jaipur Miniature PaintingsFierce camel fights; bejewelled women stretching seductively or in various stages of undress; midnight trysts of the divine lovers Radha and Krishna; Krishna painting a delicate tattoo on the breast of his sweetheart, Radha; the blood and gore of a tiger or boar hunt; the amorous dalliances of Rajput princes and the pomp and ceremony of the Mughal court - Rajasthani miniatures unabashedly celebrate every aspect of life. The paintings are a rich reminder of how both the regal Mughals and the proud Rajputs lived life in bold Technicolor.
A host of schools of miniature painting thrive in Rajasthan and, to a certain extent, they are a quaint mixture of Mughal and indigenous Indian styles. The Indian style dates back to the Jain manuscripts of western India, now preserved in the temples of Rajasthan and Gujarat. These manuscripts are inscribed on palm leaves and are illustrated with stylized miniatures, elements of which are obvious in the miniatures of today. If you examine these miniatures from the 11th century, you’ll find that the human forms are far from proportionate as the figures were squeezed in to fit the long, narrow format of the leaves. Fortunately with the coming of paper in the 12th century (thanks to the Arab traders), the miniatures were freed from this constraint.
Anyway, the long and short of it was that this style merged happily with the opulent Mughal court style and several distinct schools of Rajasthan miniatures were born: the Mewar or Udaipur school, the Bundi school, the Kishangarh school, the Bikaner school, the Jaipur school and the Alwar school. It seems that every little Rajput fiefdom worth its name encouraged its own unique style.
The Jaipur school, largely due to Jaipur’s friendly alliances with the Mughals and the patronage of Akbar in the 16th century, remained rooted in the Mughal style though the artists pushed the boundaries back to include tales from Hindu epics and the escapades of Lord Krishna. Over a period, the Jaipur school evolved a distinctive Rajasthani style which retained the Mughal penchant for restrained colour and a sense of place in the background.
In the back streets of the Pink City, you’ll find Brahmin artists working on a variety of materials from handmade paper and boards of wood to ivory and marble. Most of them still use natural colours derived from insects, shells, minerals, vegetable matter as well as silver and gold. Using the finest squirrel hairbrushes, it takes a miniaturist weeks to complete a commission. Their lack of originality – most of them merely replicate the work of their forefathers – is more than compensated for by their breathtakingly precise and detailed workmanship. Sadly, some of the more sales oriented artists have now switched to cheaper chemical colours to satisfy the demand of tourists.
Miniature paintings were once made on a base of ivory but that’s all in the past. The use of ivory has been banned now in the interests of our wildlife. So don’t get conned into buying an ivory painting or artefact. |
