Ashmolean Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

At the semi-independent Pahari (‘Hill’) courts in the Punjab Hills in the north-west, the local Hindu Rajput rulers traditionally favoured vivid and robust styles of manuscript illustration. These works of the late 17th and 18th centuries include exceptionally powerful images of the deities Bhadrakali and Harihara Sadashiva (LI118.82, LI118.4), and portraits of Basohli rulers (LI118.37, LI118.38, LI118.90) which transform the sober Mughal convention of the ruler quietly smoking his hookah. With their shifting scale and boldness of line, colour and pattern, they create an atmosphere more intense than serene. Another important genre was Ragamala (‘Garland of Ragas’), series of illustrations depicting the essential spirit of the ragas or musical modes, which were grouped into families with their ‘wives’ (ragini) and ‘sons’ (ragaputra). Pahari Ragamala pictures are small, square and compactly composed, usually with two or more figures of men, women, animals, gods or yogis, engaged in decorous yet highly charged encounters. They are sometimes devotional or heroic, but more often erotic in mood.

By the early 17th century, the Pahari rulers – like their peers from the Rajput courts of Rajasthan – were increasingly required to attend the imperial court, where they were exposed to Mughal tastes in painting and other arts. One of the earliest paintings attributable to any Pahari court, the Marriage procession in a bazaar (LI118.28), is very much in the contemporary Mughal style.

In the 18th century, the resurgence of imperial painting under the emperor Muhammad Shah (r.1719-1748) brought a renewed access of Mughal technique to the Hills, disseminated by travelling artists of the Guler school, including the highly gifted Nainsukh. Howard Hodgkin has in recent years acquired important works by this great Pahari artist, depicting his patron Balwant Singh hunting a tiger and encountering a goose (LI118.109, LI118.108).

Deities and ragas

Bhadrakali, Destroyer of the Universe (LI118.82)   Harihara Sadashiva (LI118.4)    Brahma, Creator of the Universe (LI118.6)

The moon god, illustrating the musical mode Raga Chandra (LI118.84)   A prince and lady meeting, illustrating the musical mode Raga Madhava (LI118.83)   A lady and a bull, illustrating the musical mode Bhairavi Ragini (LI118.86)   Wrestlers, illustrating the musical mode Raga Malava (LI118.85)

A lady and prince at a well, illustrating the musical mode Raga Kumbha (LI118.114)   A lady offers milk to a snake, illustrating the musical mode Ramakali Ragini (LI118.105)   Ascetics making music, illustrating the musical mode Kedara Raga (LI118.87)   A prince and a lady, illustrating the musical mode Kusuma Raga (LI118.104)

Royal portraiture

Maharaja Balwant Singh hunts a tiger (LI118.109)   Maharaja Balwant Singh and a goose (LI118.108)

Maharaja Bhupat Pal smoking a hookah (LI118.38)   Maharaja Kirpal Pal of Basohli smoking a hookah (LI118.37)   Maharaja Medini Pal smoking a hookah (LI118.90)

Maharaja Suraj Mal with a hawk (LI118.89)   Maharaja Ranjit Singh in a bazaar (LI118.110)

Court life, urban life, and mythological scenes

Marriage procession in a bazaar (LI118.28)   A goshawk drinking (LI118.106)   Elephant eating a tree (LI118.59)

Angada delivers Rama's message to Ravana (LI118.8)   A Krishna shrine (LI118.3)   Fly-infested feast (LI118.13)

A wife seeks justice or mercy (LI118.7)   The disrobing of Draupadi (LI118.9)

Travellers making music by the wayside (LI118.107)   Pavilion with Krishna paintings (LI118.5)   A lady in an interior (LI118.118)