The Images of Sikh Heritage

The links of the Sikh kingdom with Kangra and its court painters could not have been more complete. Moreover, in 1830 he appointed Raja Sher Singh as Governor General of the Kangra hills, which was a good choice as Sher Singh was as affable as Desa Singh Majithia , and in 1832 it was Lehna Singh Majithia, also a good soul. When Sher Singh was appointed Governor General of Kangra he was only 23 years old, youthful, handsome and energetic yet gentle. He was an immediate success with the local painters and there is a lovely painting of him being waited upon by a Kangra girl after a bath, with his hair open. Sher Singh was to later become a great favourite of the European artists also. In 1833 Ladakh was added to the Sikh kingdom.

The style of Kangra painting as applied to the Sikh courts and subjects did undergo certain modifications and modern accouterments made their appearances, particularly in the forms of chairs and umbrellas . Two paintings of Radha and Krishna are published in this book from the later Sikh period, in which they are alternately sitting on a chair and a sofa.
Even the frontispiece of the Guru Granth Sahib illustrated in this book (circa 1850, Kashmir) shows a painting in which Guru Arjan is dictating the text sitting on a chair. Also of significance was the fact that during this period the painters gradually switched over from mineral and natural colours to artificial colours with obvious effect. Surprisingly, females were hardly painted in Sikh miniature paintings and murals, apart from derivatives from the Kangra hills legacy.