A glimpse of the golden period of Nathdwara Painting

What is the News?

A new book features 60 miniature works from the Nathdwara Painting.

What is Nathdwara Painting?

Nathdwara Painting refers to a painting tradition and school of artists that emerged in Nathdwara, a town in Rajasthan.

Nathdwara school is a subset of the Mewar school of painting and is seen as an important school in the 17th and 18th-century miniature paintings. 

Nathdwara paintings are of different sub-styles of which Pichhwai paintings are the most popular. 

Most works produced in this style revolve around the figure of Shrinathji as a manifestation of Krishna and refer to the incident of him holding the Govardhan hill on his last finger.

Note: Shrinathji is a form of Krishna, manifested as a seven-year-old child (Balak).

What are Pichhwai Paintings?

Pichhwai literally meaning ‘that which hangs from the back’ are large devotional Hindu painted pictures, normally on cloth, which portray Krishna. The purpose of Pichhwais, other than artistic appeal, is to narrate tales of Krishna to the illiterate.

Source: This post is based on the article “A glimpse of the golden period of Nathdwara Painting” published in Livemint on 26th February 2022.