Art Merges Into Craft in Chamba

How Pahari miniature paintings gave rise to the craft of fine Chamba embroidery

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Dastkari Haat Samiti

Chamba Embroidery: Product (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The miniature style of painting that evolved out of Himachal Pradesh and spread across Jammu & Kashmir, came to be known as the Pahari School of painting. 'Pahari’ means of the hills. Miniature paintings have always been commissioned by royalty and was a popular art from in Rajasthan during Mughal times when Persian artists and influences fine-tuned the work of local artists.

Crafts Maps of India - Himachal Pradesh - 2 (1993-2010) by Vijay Sharma/ Malo DeviDastkari Haat Samiti

Pahari painting developed in the independently ruled hill states in two different forms, the Basohli and the Kangra styles.

The former was bold with strong colours, while the latter took on a more poetic and lyrical quality with softer, washed colours. This distinction continued but often merged for some years, occasionally blurring their styles.

Three paneled screen Three paneled screen by Vijender BhartiDastkari Haat Samiti

When political instability in the plains of India increased, many miniature artists fled to the more isolated hill areas, seeking patronage and protection from the rulers there.

The influence of Rajasthan’s miniature art form strengthened the distinct Kangra style, which came into full bloom after 1770, under the patronage of Raja Sansar Chand and later under Raja Bhuri Singh, in the early 20th century.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

An old painting of the chakras, spiritual vortexes in the human body, that extend from the navel to the head in yoga theory, shows its link to the Kangra school by the upturned lotus cap shaped in the traditional Himachali style.

At the navel is Ganesh with Shiva and Parvati in the cap.

The names of the deities are listed on the painting.

Chamba Embroidery: Product (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Miniature paintings to the craft of embroidery was a natural transition. When artists painted, women in royal households began imitating their paintings through their needle craft. It not only enabled them to perfect their lines, forms and choice of colours, but a healthy competitiveness between male artists and the ladies helped enhance the embroideries to such a fine level that they began to appear like Kangra paintings themselves.   

Chamba Embroidery: Culture (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Rajput kings were keen promoters of the arts. Raja Bhuri Singh was said to have presented the skills developed under him in the form of gifts to important personalities at the great Delhi Durbars in 1907 and 1911.

He was befriended and assisted by European scholars in creating a large collection of Chamba rumals which he placed in the Chamba Museum, later renamed after him.

Chamba Embroidery: Product (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Today these museum pieces are among the finest Chamba rumals in the world, while some have made their way to the National Museum in Delhi, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Calico Museum in Ahmedabad.

Chamba Embroidery: Product (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The subjects of these paintings tend to be depictions of scenes from love poems set in forests or flowered gardens or of feats during battles.

Religious epics like the Ramayana or episodes and avatars from the many Hindu legends are also painted and then embroidered.

Crafts Maps of India - Himachal Pradesh - 2 (1993-2010) by Vijay Sharma/ Malo DeviDastkari Haat Samiti

A crafts map done by well-known Kangra artist Vijay Sharma was specifically commissioned to manifest the environment, history and crafts of Himachal Pradesh. On the left side of the middle section, the artist shows a woman embroidering a Chamba rumal.

Crafts Maps of India - Himachal Pradesh (1993-2010) by Vijay Sharma/ Malo DeviDastkari Haat Samiti

A Chamba rumal was commissioned for the project of creating a crafts map of Himachal Pradesh. It was chosen as a representation of a prominent craft of the state.

The piece was embroidered by Masto Devi who works at Charu, a centre sustained by an NGO, working for the survival and development of Chamba rumals.

Images show Lord Krishna, identifiable in shades of blue, in scenes related to his betrothal.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

From line drawings to intricate embroidery 

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The fine clear lines of a Kangra art work are easy for an embroiderer to follow.

The ambience of a palace and interactions between royal figures are indicated in this drawing.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

A Kangra painting slowly emerges on paper, as its corresponding art work is drawn on the fabric that will be embroidered.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

A religious theme is being developed in this Kangra art work for a Chamba embroiderer.

A woman with a child offers a saintly person some food. Saintliness is also emphasized by the image of the lion sleeping contentedly behind them and Lord Ganesh grinding food in a bowl as a gesture of devotional service.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

A Kangra painting being readied for replication on fabric by an embroiderer in Chamba.

The theme of the painting is a familiar one of Lord Krishna being surrounded and adored by his gopis with whom he often plays in the forest.

The colours and shading of the tree shows the very fine and detailed brushwork of this school of painting.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Detail of the outline of the face of Guru Nanak, delineated in charcoal or a fine paint brush, in the initial steps of a Kangra painting.

This may be a commissioned piece that will be embroidered and hung in a Sikh temple.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The preliminary work on a painting of Guru Nanak with prayer beads in his hand completes this portrait which may have been commissioned by a Sikh devotee or for a gurudwara, a Sikh temple.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

An artist begins drawing on a fresh piece of white muslin fabric for the Chamba embroiderer.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

With fine threadwork, an embroiderer fills in the illustration made on the Chamba Rumal.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The Chamba rumal grows as the needle and thread carefully follow the outlines of the illustration made by the Kangra artist.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The embroiderer choses what style of stitch she will use on each image. Colours follow the artist’s indications or imitates an old piece.

Chamba Embroidery: Process (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

The back and forth satin stitch ensures that both the surface and its reverse side appear the same. This is called the do-rukha, or two-faced style.

Chamba Embroidery: Product (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

This Chamba rumal is done in a folk-art style not typical of the classical Kangra school of painting.

This piece has distinctly different forms of animals and human figures. They have a playful naiveté and randomness as in the placing of peacocks.

Chamba Embroidery: Culture (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

An embroiderer puts up small art works of different vintages and done by family members of different age groups on the wall of her home.

Chamba Embroidery: Product (2012-08-01)Dastkari Haat Samiti

New ideas, old Pahari painting styles

Sneh Gangal, a miniature artist, embarks upon a combination of Kangra art and calligraphy. 'Geet Govind' was a famous 12th century poem by Jayadev, singing of Krishna and Radha’s love. By shaping the word govind and filling it with scenes of Krishna and Radha in a forest, she explores a new idea.

Chamba Embroidery: Product (2012-08-01)Dastkari Haat Samiti

A set of four Kangra art works combined with calligraphy reads as Geet Govind, the name of a 12th Century love poem.

The original works by Sneh Gangal, a miniature artist from Delhi, are painted on mirrors from the underside after scraping away the reflective coating in the designated areas.

While being shaded in the Rajasthan style, it retains the figurative facets of the Kangra school of painting.

Chamba Embroidery: Product (2018-03-29)Dastkari Haat Samiti

Credits: Story

Text: Jaya Jaitly
Photography: Chirodeep Chaudhuri
Artisans: Parikshit Sharma, Indu Sharma, Lalita Vakil
Ground Facilitator: Charu Verma
Documentary Video: Chirodeep Chaudhuri
Curation: Ruchira Verma

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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