Kishangarh Bani Thani Miniature Painting Ajmer Rajasthan

Kishangarh Bani Thani is the iconic miniature painting style of the Kishangarh princely state in Ajmer district of Rajasthan, developed in the 18th century by court painter Nihal Chand under the patronage of Raja Savant Singh, a devotee-poet who wrote devotional poetry to the goddess Radha under the pen name Nagari Das. The style is distinguished by the elongated, stylized face with a sharp pointed nose, deeply arched eyebrow in a continuous curve from forehead to temple, large almond-shaped eyes with extended painted lashes meeting at the ear, and a slender neck and tapering fingers that together create a characteristic idealized feminine beauty canon associated with the figure of Bani Thani (the Radha portrait). The Bani Thani painting was declared one of the masterpieces of Indian miniature painting when a postage stamp reproducing it was issued by India Post in 1973. Kishangarh miniatures are painted on handmade wasli (layered cotton rag paper), sized with alum and polished with agate stone, using mineral and semi-precious stone pigments including lapis lazuli, malachite, cinnabar, and gold for background floral scroll borders. The Kishangarh school also produced large-scale Krishna Leela narrative cycles and landscape panoramas of Pushkar Lake. Contemporary Kishangarh painters train through the Rajasthan School of Arts and continue to produce both traditional format works and adapted luxury stationery and art objects for collectors and export markets.