Miniature Painting

This miniature painting belongs to the Pahari style of the Himalayan foothills, a courtly style of the Raj put kings that flourished from the 17th to the 19th century.

This painting depicts the childhood days of Lord Krishna. Krishna is known in the stories of the Bhagavata-Purana as the 8th incarnation of the god Vishnu, destined to perform great deeds and remove the evils of the world. Shown in this Indian miniature watercolor painting as a child with grey-blue skin, he is a popular deity, a divine hero who personifies superhuman powers as well as human hopes and failings. Stories of Krishna's childhood with his loving foster-mother Yashoda in a village of cow-herds are much beloved and illustrated in paintings and sculpture.

Pahari Painting

The truthful significance of Pahari painting is a painting from the mountainous regions. The term pahar stands for the word mountain in Hindi. Pahari painting is an umbrella term used for a type of Indian painting. This unique type of painting begins from the Himalayan Hill kingdoms of North India, during 17th-19th century. Remarkably Basohli, Mankot, Nurpur, Chamba, Kangra, Gulley, Mandi, and Garhwal were done mostly in tiny forms.

Initially the Pahari School was urbanized and flourishes during 17th-19th centuries. It extends from Jammu to Almora and Garhwal, in the sub-Himalayan India, via Himachal Pradesh.Each creates stark variations within the type, varying from bold intense Basohli Painting that originates from Basohli in Jammu and Kashmir, to the delicate and lyrical Kangra paintings. This style was identical to the style before other schools of paintings developed, that reached its peak with paintings of Radha and Krishna, inspired by Jayadev's Gita Govinda.

This unique kind gave birth to a new language in Indian painting, and grew out of the Mughal painting, though this was supported mostly by the Raj put kings who ruled numerous parts of the county.