Painting History of Uttarakhand :

Uttarakhand is interspersed with lush green trees, towering mountains and a clear blue sky. These things are enough to make someone a poet or an artist. This is just a fraction of the beauty of the hilly territory. Uttaranchal or specifically, Garhwal is home to one of the most beautiful and defining ‘Gharanas’ of miniature paintings known as the Garhwal School of Painting. This is offshoot of the Guler-Kangra (Pahari) School of Painting of Himachal Pradesh. The basic timeline for its development and its peak ranges from 13th -18th Century A.D.

Masters and Masterpieces :

The credit of reinstating the Garhwal Painting into their original position should go to Mukandi Lal, a barrister by profession. His passion for paintings surfaced in a 1968 book called 'Garhwal Paintings'. It revived and popularized this genre to a large extent. The most famous Garhwal School of Painting artists are Mola Ram, Shyam Das, Har Das, Hiralal, Mangat Ram, Jwalaram, Tejram and Brijnath. The most ‘colorful classics’ known consist of Illustrations of Ramayana (1780 AD), Celebrations of Balarama's Birthday (1780 AD), Series of Raginis, Shiva and Parvati, Utkat Nayika, Abhisarika Nayika, Krishna Painting the feet of Radha, Radha looking into a mirror, Varsha Vihar, Kaliya Daman, Illustrations of Geet Govinda.

Special Features :

The distinctive features of the Garhwal School of Painting consist of extremely beautiful and near perfect women with high arched, thin and delicate looking eyebrows and a captivating nose with a defined nose bridge resting on a supple oval face. The build of the female would usually have a tiny waist emphasized by the greatly developed bosom. This envisioning of the ideal beauty was on metaphorical terms that blended poetry and passion with romance and sometimes religion. It showed the unblemished approach towards finding that unabashed and spiritual love in India at that time.

How it Started :

In 13th Century the Kumaon region was ruled by the Chand Dynasty (starting 700 AD till mid 19th Century). This long rule resulted in the prosperity of the state and gave people time to cultivate their creative side. This gave rise to the period of learning and development of new styles of painting in the area, collectively called the Pahari School of Painting. In the middle of the 17th Century Suleiman Shikoh, the nephew of Mughal king Aurangzeb, stayed here for a while.

The court painters accompanying him were already experienced with the Mughal Miniature Painting style and were fascinated by the new Pahari Style. The painters stayed behind when Shikoh left and gradually their descendents, experts on their own rights, started what today is known as the Garhwal School of Painting. In 18th Century, a poet cum painter cum statesman called Mola Ram further defined and refined the nuances of this school, giving an identity to it.

 Garhwal school of painting :

The development of the Garhwal school of painting as a branch of the Pahari school of art is believed to have started in the 17th century and reached its zenith in the latter half of the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. The chief pioneer behind this growth was the eminent Garhwali painter, poet and historian Mola Ram.

In the 17th century, the Mughal Prince Suleman Shikoh had taken refuge in Garhwal. He was accompanied by a few artists well versed in the Mughal style of miniature paintings. When he returned he left behind Shamdas and Haridas, who had already mastered the new painting techniques. These two were the ancestors of Mola Ram.

The Pahari Painting is inspired by the battles between good and evil. It has covered vast subjects like Indian life; its history, culture and traditions, with a touch of divinity. There is a lot of subtle spiritual content in the art, literature and mythology that has survived for generations in the Indian sub-continent. The Pahari Kalam style of painting was developed in the Kumaon area and was practiced in some of the Himalayan regions.

Aipan or Alpana is a popular Kumaoni art form done on walls, paper and pieces of cloth. This decorative art includes drawings of various geometric and other figures representing gods, goddesses and objects of nature. The pichhauras or dupattas are also decorated in this way. These ritual designs and patterns are an expression of a women’s artistic taste.

Barboond, Patta, Rangwali etc. are some more forms of local ritual paintings to be done on specific occasions.Besides these some spots like Lakhudiyar, Falseema, Kasardevi in Kumaon and Dungri in garhwal have traces of ancient rock paintings and engravings.