Amber-Jaipur Rajasthan Painting

Amber-Jaipur 

Though the family of Kachhawaha Rajputs was firmly established for a long time and the first Mughal contact with them was made in 1562 through BharMal's matrimonial alliance with Akbar. the origin of the Amber-Jaipur school of painting probably dates back from Raja Man Singh's (1589-1614) time. Extensive frescoes of early Jahangiri style have been discovered in Mauzamabad, Man Singh's birth-place, Bairath, and Amber. Literay works from Man Singh's reign bear graphic description of wall-paintings, illustration of Ragamala subject, scenes from Bhagavata Purana, Baramasa, etc. A profusely illustrated copy of Bhagavata Purana prepared in 1598 at Ahmedabad is preserved in the City Palace Museum. It is said that a copy of Gita*Govinda with more than two hundred miniatures in the Chaurapanchasika style but dated 1550 was preserved in the Jaipur Pothikhana. If discovered the manuscript would provide very vital information about the period and provenance of the entire group of miniature of the Chaurapanchasikh style. However, no further in- formation about miniature paintings prepared during Man Singh's time or earlier have been found. 

          Mirza Raja Jai Singh (1621 -1667) was a well known builder and collector. He was responsible for building most of palaces and halls of the Amber fort and also has a superb collection of Persian and Mughal carpets and miniature paintings. But the paintings executed at Amber during his reign are mostly in a folk style. Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh (1699-1734) was a great personality and a great patorn of art, architecture, literature, astronomy, etc. He built the modem city of Jaipur which was extremely well-planned and astronomical obsevatories commonly known as Janter Mantars' in Jaipur, Delhi, Banaras, Ujjain and Mathura. The painters employed by him included such well known names Sahib Ram. Sahib Ram was active for nearly fifty years and painted many large-sized portraits many of which are exhibited in the City Palace Museum, Jaipur. 

         Sawai Iswari Singh (1743-76), Sawai Madho Singh I (1750-67), and Sawai Pratap Singh (1767-79) also patronised works of good quality painters like Ramji Das, Govinda, Hiranand and Triloka. The well laid Rani Sisodanji's garden and palace with its excellent wall-paintings was built during Madho Singh's regin. 

        The most celebrated name in the history of Amber Jaipur school is that of Sawai Pratap Singh. He was a great patron of art, music and literature, being an acconmplished composer and musician him- self. He built up a large atelier with more than fifty painters turning out exquisite miniatures in numerous manuscripts of Durga-Path, Ramayana, Bhagvata Purana, Krishna Lila etc. Many miniatures illustrating Ragamala, court-scenes, festive scene etc. were painted during his reign by such painters as Gopal, Udai, Hukma, Jiwan, Saligram, Ramasevak, Lakshman etc. The paintings of Pratap Singh's period are highly refined products with a bright colour-scheme containing green, yellow, pink and brownred with a lavish use of gold. Though the designs are precisely executed yet they lack in vigour. Like Madho Singh I, Pratap Singh must have marvelled to look at his own portraits, hundreds of which are turned out by the royal painters. 

         In the middle of the nineteenth century the tradition of painting lost its sap and an increasing proportion of the output became bad and inferior copies of foreign idioms. The atelier continued to turn out paintings durings of Sawai Jai Singh Sawai Ram Singh II and Sawai Madho Singh II.

        The Jaipur rulers collected many important examples of Mughal paintings amongst which the copies of the Rayntwma and the Ramayana prepared for the personal use of Emperor Akbar, are the most celebrated. Though the painters of Amber Jaipur did not prepare replica of these works, their styles reveal an increasing awareness of the Mughal style. Their main preoccupation, like that of their Mughal counterparts, was to depict the human figure.

        The achievement of the Jaipur school had its impact on local schools of Alwar, Tonk, Bharatpur and Karauli. The wall paintings of Jaipur City Palace (old Madho Niwas), Pundarkji Ki Haveli, etc., find their reverberations mostly in the Shekhawati area where extensive remain of wall-painting executed between 1725 and 1875 may still be seen.