The Pahari Schools of Painting grew in the hills of the western Himalayas. Given below are two statements about them:
Statement I: The Pahari School began at Basohli with a well-refined, sophisticated style.
Statement II: The Pahari towns emerged as centres of painting from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → Only Statement II is correct.
Statement I: The Pahari School began at Basohli with a well-refined, sophisticated style. — Incorrect. It began at Basohli with a coarsely flamboyant style. The most exquisite and sophisticated style came later, at Kangra.
Statement II: The Pahari towns emerged as centres of painting from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. — Correct. Towns such as Basohli, Guler and Kangra became centres of painting in these three centuries.
NCERT (2026-27): “The Pahari Schools of Painting Pahari denotes ‘hilly or mountainous’ in origin. Pahari Schools of Painting includes towns, such as Basohli, Guler, Kangra, Kullu, Chamba, Mankot, Nurpur, Mandi, Bilaspur, Jammu and others in the hills of western Himalayas, which emerged as centres of painting from seventeenth to nineteenth century. Beginning at Basohli with a coarsely flamboyant style, it blossomed into the most exquisite and sophisticated style of Indian painting known as the Kangra School, through the Guler or pre-Kangra phase.” |