Fig: Holi being played in the courtyard, 1795, Patna Kalam School

Introduction

Mughal rule in India has inuenced the social, cultural, political and economic life style of Indian people. But the area which mostly inuenced was art, architecture and culture. As far as painting is concerned Jahangir’s reign was known as the golden era of Mughal paintings. Combining the Persian style with the Indian traditional style they introduced a new way of painting.

Many Indian schools of paintings were ourished afterwards and they were heavily inuenced by Mughal paintings. One among these was Patna School of Painting or Patna Kalam or Company painting. Patna Kalam was an oshoot of Mughal painting ourished during early 18th to mid 20th century in Bihar. The principal centres were Patna, Danapur and Arrah.

During the rule of Aurangzeb Hindu artisans of Mughal painting faced prosecution because of his anti-Hindu policy and distaste in art and painting. Thus these painters rst shifted to Murshidabad which was growing itself as a power center. With the decline and subsequent fall of Murshidabad, the court artists looked weswards to the next biggest city in the East and started migrating to Patna and Purnea. By mid 18th century, many of those artists had settled in Patna with their families, and under the patronage of local aristocracy and often indophine scions of the early East India Company, started a unique form of painting which came to known as the Company School or Patna Kalam.

Evolution:

Patna, by this time, had developed into an important trade centre and newly riches of the Company ocials and merchants were delighted with these paintings. Painting took a whole new level from the royal paintings painters were accustomed with.

The painters of Patna Kalam were settled in the areas of Deewan Mohalla, Lodi Katra and Macharhatta in Patna and by 1770s, the style was rmly established. These artists used to paint ‘sets of caste occupation’ known ‘Firka’, based on everyday life – washer-men, hawkers, bangle sellers, butchers, sh seller, carpenters, washer man, baskets seller, distillers, etc., and not Royals became subjects of these paintings. Patna painters were exploring the European market and trying to adapt their style to the tastes of the Europeans who greatly respected its versatility and competence. While this demand for these miniatures of ordinary life in India was being established, and served as a pictorial documentary of the life in those times. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, miniature portraits on paper, vellum, bone, and later, ivory, were the fashion with the upper and middle classes.

Some famous painters of Patna kalam were Sewak Ram (1770-1830), Hulas Lal (1785- 1875), Jairam Das, Fakir Chand, Jhumak Lal, Nityanand Lal, Tunni Lal, Shiv Lal, Shiva Lal, Mahadeo Lal, Shyam Bihari Lal etc. Nisar Mehdi was popular for portraits and landscapes, while Hulas Lal used ‘his naturalistic gures as the material for organic rhythm’
Among the last painter of Patna Kalam was Ishwari Prasad Verma. Radha Mohan Babu left no attempt to make this painting school live for long. He was the founder of Patna Art School, which started in a single room on the Govind Mitra Road in Patna and blossomed into the Government School of Art and Crafts (currently in a large buinding near the Patna Museum).

Main features and characteristics of Patna Kalam Paintings:

• Miniatures were the primary paintings and these were very simple, lucid and proportionate. While retaining the grace of the Mughal style, Patna Kalam decided to remain simplistic in nature.
• Patna Kalam has clear influence of the Mughal paintings and Pahadi paintings due to its roots in them. Also there is influence of Western as Calcutta was the next nearest market which was called as ‘London of the East’.
• Hence the painting shows rare fusion of the native and foreign elements. Although they followed the basic features of Mughal painting their subject matter was different. Unlike Mughal painting whose subjects were mainly royalty, court and hunting scenes, painters of Patna Kalam were deeply influenced by daily life of common people like the artisans working, the merchants at the market, iron smith, bazaar scenes, local rulers, local festival and ceremonies.
• A painting of tanga (house cart) is very famous. Another painting of Golghar is remarkable which shows that Golghar was actually built near the bank of the river Ganges which shows changes in the landscape.
• These paintings are characterized by light colored sketches and life-like representations. One of the important characteristic of Patna Kalam is that usually they do not paint any landscape, foreground or background. Other feature of the Patna School of Painting was the development in the shading of solid forms.
• The art of finishing touch is marvelous in Patna Kalam. The painting of flying bird is the perfect example of this, the thin fur as well as the wings of the bird are depicted so clearly as if the painting seems to be an absolute photography.
• The features of the figures of these paintings are characterized by the pointed noses, heavy eyebrows, lean and gaunt faces, sunken and deep-set staring eyes and big mustaches.
• The painters used to extract colours indigenously from plants, barks, flowers and metals. Generally they painted on paper, glass, mica and ivory sheets which were mostly handmade.
• The paper, these paintings mostly were made on, was generally recycled from the waste paper and the brushes used were made of the fur of the animals. The tail of squirrel was the most famous choice of the artists.
• The paper was treated with vitriol and arrowroot which not only used to give it a shining face but also acted as preservatives so that the paintings could really last long.
• The paintings are painted straightway with the brush without using the pencil to delineate the contours of the picture. This technique was commonly known as ‘Kajli Seahi’.

After attaining the fame and glory for about a century, Patna Kalam declined due to lack of patronage from the colonial government, lack of demand from the customers, advent of photography etc. Dr. Abdul Haidi wrote a book on Patna Kalam which gives the detailed account of the same. The government of Bihar published the 2010 yearly calender with the theme of Patna Kalam. Many painting of Patna Kalam can be seen at Patna Museum, Patna Arts College and Khudabaksh Library, Patna.

This is the most unfortunate things about the Patna Kalam, like the world-famous Madhubani paintings, it has not received its due share of acknowledgement despite of that many believes that the eponymous painting was far superior to the more popular Mithila paintings. The Patna Kalam faced competition from the Madhubani paintings which is marketed professionally both at home and abroad. Also, Maghubani painting is a folk form which could be easily transferred from one generation to another.