According to the art historian B. N. Goswamy, who was chiefly responsible for the course of Pahari painting?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → The family of Pandit Seu (Shiv)
Option (1) Artists who migrated from the Mughal atelier — Incorrect. This is an earlier idea about the sudden change in Pahari style, which most scholars now dispute.
Option (2) Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra — Incorrect. Sansar Chand was the great patron under whom Kangra painting blossomed. Goswamy credits a family of artists, not a patron.
Option (3) Raja Kirpal Pal of Basohli — Incorrect. Kirpal Pal was the ruler of Basohli under whom its distinctive style developed. He was a patron, not the family Goswamy names.
Option (4) The family of Pandit Seu (Shiv) — Correct. Goswamy took the family as the basis of style, and argued that the family of Pandit Seu (Shiv) shaped Pahari painting.
NCERT (2026-27): “The Pahari Schools of Painting …B. N. Goswamy, one of the most significant scholars of the Pahari Schools of Painting, has attributed the shaping of Pahari style from the simplicity of Basohli to poetic lyricism and refinement of Kangra to the ingenuity of a family of artists through his scholarly approach of family as the basis of style. His central argument is that the family of Pandit Seu (Shiv) was chiefly responsible for the course of Pahari paintings.…” |