Bundi and Kota

Bundi's earliest set of paintings, the Chunar Ragamala (1591), was painted at Chunar, near Benaras, under Bhoj Singh. The artists, Shaykh Hasan, Shaykh Ali and Shaykh Hatim, were pupils of the Mughal masters Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad.

Bundi painting flourished under Rao Chattar Sal and Rao Bhao Singh, then Aniruddha Singh and Budh Singh, and reached its most refined phase under Umed Singh. Bishen Singh loved hunting; Ram Singh's chitrashala (painted gallery) has murals.

Bundi and Kota paintings love lush plants, wildlife, water and elephants. Bundi women are small, with round faces and a pinched waist. In one Raga Dipak page, the space for the verse was never filled, which shows that the painting was done before the scribe wrote the text.

Kota separated from Bundi in 1625, and its school began in the 1660s, at first copying Bundi. Kota artists made the landscape a subject in itself, and, under Umed Singh (who became king at ten), painted hunting scenes again and again. The style is spontaneous and calligraphic, with strong shading and a double-lid eye.

In Tulchi Ram's portrait of Aniruddha Singh on horseback (1680), the ground is left out, so the horse seems to fly: a clever way to show speed.