The Government of India issued a postal stamp on a miniature Painting. Identify the painting of Rajasthani school?

Bani Thani

*The correct answer is Option (4) → Bani Thani*

Sawant Singh composed devotional poetry on Krishna and Radha in Brajbhasha under the pen name Nagari Das. He is said to have been passionately in love with a young singer, who was accorded the title ‘Bani Thani’, the bewitching lady of fashion, because of her unparalleled beauty and elegance. She was an attendant of Raj Singh’s wife and a gifted poetess, singer and dancer. Bani Thani was Sawant Singh’s muse for the poetry he wrote, celebrating the love of Radha and Krishna. He writes about her in a poem Bihari Jas Chandrika, which became the basis for Nihal chand’s painting of Bani Thani, thus, representing a blending of poetry and painting. Troubled by fratricidal conflict, Sawant Singh, eventually, abdicated the throne in 1757 and retired to Vrindavan along with Bani Thani.

The exaggerated facial type of Kishangarh, which becomes the distinctive and salient stylistic feature of the Kishangarh School, is believed to have been derived from the attractively sharp facial features of Bani Thani. Artist Nihal Chand is attributed with the credit of contriving this exquisite and characteristic Kishangarh physiognomy that is perceived in figures of Sawant Singh and Bani Thani is always represented as Krishna and Radha in brilliantly coloured, panoramic landscapes. Radha’s face in Bani Thani as Radha is unique in her deeply curved eyes, exaggerated arch of the eyebrows, pointed nose, serpentine curl of hair spiralling down the cheek, thin lips and pronounced chin. This particular painting is in the collection of National Museum, New Delhi.