India is home to an abundance of a variety of art forms. Its wildly divergent geographical areas, its complex history, its rich literary traditions and its cultural diversity not only make the different styles of art strikingly different, but they also make them astonishingly similar. Despite the plethora of art in India, there is a disparity between the number of male and female figures represented in paintings as well as female artists and their male counterparts, with men occupying the centre stage of Indian art. This is why, I aim to study the differences and similarities between two major styles of Indian art- Mughal paintings and Kangra paintings through a gendered lens.
I attempt to investigate the differences in these two popular styles of Indian art by using Molly Emma Aitken’s essay “Spectatorship and Femininity in Kangra Style Painting”. Simply put, Aitken delves into the description of Kangra style paintings and how they are conceptualized while stating the function these paintings played in terms of interactions with its audience- both male and female. I will apply her theory to other paintings in the Mughal style to see if her theory holds good within a larger context of Indian art. I will also examine whether Aitken’s theory is relevant to a modern world in the 21st century.
Kangra Paintings: An Overview
Kangra paintings, famous for their lyrical contents expressed in a delicate manner, are one of the branches of the Pahari Style of painting which flourished from approximately the 17th to 19th century BC over a wide hilly region in the Indian subcontinent stretching from Jammu Kashmir to Almora. Many experts are of the opinion that Kangra paintings have their origin in the Basholi style of art. Basholi, located on the right bank of River Ravi in the Kathua District of Jammu Kashmir in northern India, was a center of art and culture for a long period of time. This school of painting developed under the patronage of local kings and the pictures portrayed people with the colors brown, ochre yellow and green dominating the scheme. However, the importance of Basholi paintings began to diminish by the middle of the 18th century. Lack of royal patronage is thought to be one of the reasons for the decline of this style of paintings. Incidentally, a similar school of painting began to be evolved in Kangra under the patronage of Katoch kings around the same time. Very soon, this school of painting began to shadow other schools in the Himalayan region and hence Kangra painting almost became synonymous with Pahari painting. According to another school of thought, Kashmiri painters trained in Mughal art came to settle in Guler near Kangra in the middle of the 18th century. They mingled with the local artists trained in Basholi style of art and evolved a new art form called Guler painting which later evolved into and paved way for Kangra paintings.
Kangra painting is not a folk art. It is essentially aristocratic art, the patrons of which were the rulers who had fine sensibility and good taste. Thus, Kangra painting is the art of elite. Even the number of women depicted in Kangra paintings is larger than in most other Indian art forms. This is because one of the focal themes of the Kangra style of painting is Shringar which means erotic sentiment. The paintings depict feminine charm in a very graceful manner. The heroin who is called the nayika in Indian art is shown as a figure of youthful coy in Kangra miniatures. She has an ideal physical type which is slender and elegant, radiating infinite charm, sensitiveness and refinement. Female figures are exceptionally beautiful in Kangra paintings and their facial features are soft and refined. Apart from female beauty, Kangra paintings are known for their naturalistic style.
Mughal Paintings: An Overview
Mughal style of painting evolved in the Indian subcontinent during the reigns of Mughal Emperors who ruled India between the 16th to the 18th century BC. The Mughals were a Muslim dynasty of Turco-Mongol origin from Persia who ruled the Indian subcontinent between 1526 and 1857. Mughal painting emerged as branch of the Safavid miniature school of Persian painting but soon moved away from Persian ideals by absorbing Hindu, Jain and Buddhist influences over the years. This style of individual miniature painting usually took the form of book illustrations or single sheets preserved in albums. Under the rule of the early Mughal emperors in the 16th century in India, abstract and formal traditions of Persian miniature painting were prevalent. However, this high abstraction of the Persian style was abandoned and replaced with a more realistic style of portraiture over time. Mughal art prospered and developed differently under the four main emperors. The time under each emperor is call a period, therefore the four periods were- Akbar period, Jahangir period, Shah Jahan period and Aurangzeb and later period. Under Akbar, the Mughal empire emerged as a center of cultural excellence. It was during his reign that Mughal painting came into the form it is recognized as today and experienced a large-scale growth. Jahangir extended great support to various art forms, especially paintings. This period saw more refinement in brush work and the colors used became much lighter and subdued from Akbar’s period. Portrait making became more prevalent than illustrating books because of Jahangir’s preference for portraits. The paintings started showing a European influence and lacking the vigor, movement and vivid bright colors that characterized Mughal paintings under Akbar. The Shah Jahan period showed a shift of artistic focus to architecture with more emphasis on rigid portraits that resembled abstract effigies. The Mughal style of painting saw its downfall during the fourth period under emperor Aurangzeb. Since Aurangzeb did not encourage painting and the arts, very few portraits survive from his court.