Regional Schools of Indian Miniature Paintings

Schools of miniature painting tend to differ according to the region they originated from. The primary schools of painting seen here are Malwa, Deccan, and Pahari. 

The Pahari School of painting flourished from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, from Jammu to the Garhwal region in North India. Some of the notable styles under the Pahari School are Basohli, Mankot, Nurpur, Chamba, Kangra, Guler, Kullu-Mandi and Garhwal. 

The Malwa School of miniature painting evolved from the thirteenth to the eighteenth centuries in the Malwa and Bundelkhand regions – currently Madhya Pradesh in India. Some of the themes explored in the Malwa school are the Ragamalas, Rasikapriya, Radha-Krishna and the Ramayana. 

The Deccan School of miniature painting flourished from the late sixteenth century under the patronage of the Deccani sultanates in Central India. 

The artworks seen here are primarily Ragamala (garland of ragas, or musical modes) miniatures. A unique phenomenon that synthesises music, poetry and painting, each miniature illustrates a verse which evokes the mood of a specific raga. The verses are generally written either on the top margin or on the reverse of the painting. While many of these paintings depict the romantic love between Krishna and Radha, they also connote a divine love between the raga (a melody of Indian classical music personified as a hero) and the ragini (derivative of the raga, personified as the heroine). While the ragas were meant to depict changes in seasons, raginis were meant to humanise these temporal changes. 

Read more about Ragamala paintings with the MAP Academy.