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Indian art historian and critic Brijinder Nath Goswamy, best known for his scholarship on Indian miniature painting tradition, passed away on Friday in Chandigarh due to prolonged ill health. He was 90.
A Padma Bhushan recipient and former IAS officer, Goswamy first came under the spotlight after the publication of his ground-breaking 1968 article, ‘Pahari Painting: The Family as the Basis of Style’. In his piece, the historian was able to unearth family lineages of renowned artists who played an essential role in the development and continuation of miniature painting — the revelation was one of his biggest contributions to the history of miniature paintings in India.
But before we dive deeper into Goswamy’s legacy, a look at the tradition of Indian miniature painting.
Miniature painting is an intricate form of art involving highly detailed paintings on a small scale. It’s characterised by the use of “bright colours, intricate patterns, and elaborate detailing,” according to a report by the World Art Community, an online forum where artists and designers showcase their work for direct purchase by clients.
The roots of the miniature painting tradition go back to the Buddhist Pala dynasty, which ruled Bengal and Bihar from the 8th century until the end of the 11th century. The paintings during this era existed in the form of illustrations of religious texts on Buddhism and Jainism. The illustrations were made on palm leaf until paper was introduced between the 11th and 13th centuries.
However, the tradition didn’t begin to thrive until the rise of the Mughal Empire in the early 1500s. “It was only through the emphasis and funding provided by Humayun and his descendants that court painting in the form of Mughal miniatures came to be seen as the highest form of sophistication and elegance,” wrote Surya Tubach, US Lead for Google Arts & Culture, in her article ‘The Astounding Miniature Paintings of India’s Mughal Empire’, published by Artsy, an online art marketplace.
Mughal miniatures were not bigger than a few square inches and featured brightly coloured paintings used to illustrate manuscripts and art books. They were astonishingly accurate, with some lines painted using brushes composed of a single hair, Tubach added.
The tradition of Mughal miniature began to decline during the reign of Aurangzeb. This led to the migration of skilled miniaturists to the princely courts of Rajasthan and lower Himalayan hill kingdoms of North India and the plains of Punjab. It’s in places like Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Tehri-Garhwal that a new tradition of miniature painting took birth and came to be known as Pahari painting — Rajasthan too witnessed the rise of different schools of miniature painting.
Pahari paintings featured both religious and secular subjects. Detailed paintings based on religious epics such as Mahabharat and Ramayana, Puranas, and Gita were frequently painted in the style.
Miniature painting also flourished in the Deccan region between the 16th and 19th centuries. It emerged after the break-up of the Bahmani Sultanate in 1520. Known as Deccan painting, the style initially developed independent of Mughal influences and took cues from European, Iranian and Turkish influences.
“Deccani miniature paintings showcased illumination and decoration of text from the Holy Quran and the Surahs. Indigenous art forms and romantic elements were later amalgamated into this art form,” according to the World Art Community report.
Now, how Goswamy helped expand our knowledge about miniature paintings.
Goswamy in his 1968 article, which focused on Pahari painting, illustrated that the style of paintings didn’t depend on in which state they were being produced. The style was dependent on the family of painters.
In a 2014 interview with the Seminar Magazine, he said: “Work was done within families, very unlike the Mughal court. In the Mughal court, you may also have a father and son working for the same patron, but the style did not belong to a family of painters, so to speak.”
Goswamy then went on to reconstruct the entire family networks of some of the most renowned Indian miniature families, including that of Pandit Seu, who worked in Himachal Pradesh’s Guler, and his sons, Nainsukh and Manaku (together they dominated one of the most exciting periods of Pahari painting), as well as their numerous artist grandchildren.
The historian did this by “employing a combination of detective work and intuition, he managed to marry the evidence from inscriptions on the back of miniatures with 18th-century pilgrim records kept in the Ganges holy town of Haridwar,” wrote William Dalrymple in his 2015 piece published by The Guardian.
Although Goswamy initially focused on the artists of the Punjab hills, he gradually broadened his research scope by including more regions from northern to southern India.
“Like an Indian avatar of Bernard Berenson, who dug in the Tuscan Ducal archives to unearth the bills of exchange between the artists and patrons that would enable him to provide attributions to a host of anonymous canvases, Goswamy has succeeded in reconstructing whole dynasties of previously obscure artists, given them names, and restored their identities and honour,” Dalrymple added.
