Description

Devotion – Basohli Painting

Basohli (Basoli) formerly Vishwasthali is a town in Kathua district in the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India. It is situated on the right bank of River Ravi at an altitude of 1876 ft. Raja Bhupat Pal founded Basohli sometime in 1635.

Basholi is famous for its paintings. It is the first school of Pahari paintings. Basohli Paintings evolved into the much prolific Kangra paintings school by the mid-eighteenth century. The popular themes of the Basohli paintings are the portraits of local rulers, the Hindu Gods, figures from Hindu mythology, Radha-Krishna, Madhava-Malati love themes, and themes from the Bhagavata Purana.

Basohli painting was a vigorous, bold, imaginative artistic style, rich, stylish, and unconventional. A style of painting characterized by a vigorous use of primary colours and a peculiar facial formula prevailed in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries in the foothills of the Western Himalayas in the Jammu and Punjab States. The earliest paintings in this style date back to the time of Raja Kirpal Pal (1678–93).