The Pahari Schools of Painting
Kangra under Sansar Chand
Recognise the Kangra kalam.
Kangra painting blossomed under Raja Sansar Chand (1775-1823) of the Katoch dynasty, who became king at ten. Manaku's family moved to his court when Guler's Prakash Chand could no longer pay them.
His grandfather, Ghamand Chand, had founded Tira Sujanpur on the river Beas. Painting was centred there, at Alampur, and, in its most mature form, at Nadaun.
The Kangra style is the most poetic and lyrical in India: delicate lines, brilliant colour, minute detail, and, from about the 1790s, the famous female face with a straight nose in line with the forehead.
Its themes: the Bhagavata Purana, the Gita Govinda, Nala Damayanti, the Bihari Satsai, the Ragamala, the Baramasa, and Sansar Chand's own court life. Its painters included Fattu, Purkhu and Khushala.
The Gurkha siege of 1805 disrupted painting. After 1809 work continued, but it never matched the years 1785-1805. The style spread to Garhwal and Kashmir.
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