Which of the following statements about the Pahari School of Painting is NOT correct?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 4
The correct answer is Option (4) → Most scholars now accept that the change in style was caused by artists migrating from the Mughal atelier.
Option (1) The flamboyantly bold Basohli-like style is understood to be its earliest prevailing pictorial language. — A true statement about the Pahari School. The bold Basohli-like style is generally taken as the earliest pictorial language of the hills.
Option (2) B. N. Goswamy held the family of Pandit Seu chiefly responsible for the course of Pahari paintings. — A true statement about the Pahari School. This is Goswamy’s central argument.
Option (3) In the early eighteenth century, the style of the Seu family conformed to the Basohli idiom. — A true statement about the Pahari School. Scholars agree on this; the change came only from the middle of the eighteenth century.
Option (4) Most scholars now accept that the change in style was caused by artists migrating from the Mughal atelier. — Not a true statement about the Pahari School. Most scholars now dispute the migration hypothesis.
NCERT (2026-27): “The Pahari Schools of Painting …However, the flamboyantly bold Basohli-like style is, generally, understood to be the earliest prevailing pictorial language. 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.…” “The Pahari Schools of Painting …Scholars agree that in the early eighteenth century, the style of the Seu family and others conformed to the Basohli idiom. However, from middle of the eighteenth century, the style transformed through a pre-Kangra phase, maturing into the Kangra style.…” “The Pahari Schools of Painting …Most scholars, now, dispute the earlier hypothesis that the sudden change was caused and initiated by the migration of artists from the Mughal atelier.…” |