Saumya Garima Jaipuriar
Assistant Professor, Department of English, Kirorimal College, University of Delhi.
ORCID: 0000-0002-4336-6278Email: sgjaipuriar@gmail.com,
Volume 12, Number 4, July-September, 2020 I Full Text PDF
DOI: 10.21659/rupkatha.v12n4.14
Abstract
This paper seeks to explore how scientific documentation fuelled by Enlightenment and indigenous art intermingled to create Patnakalam in nineteenth century India. Patnakalam, a school of painting that flourished in Patna, Bihar in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, came into existence with the complex interactions between an indigenous artistic tradition and a western visual sensibility mediated by the requirements of science. Botanists of the East India Company employed native artists to make illustrations of local plant species in an attempt to scientifically catalogue all of the natural resources of the region. This inevitably contributed to the formation of a style of painting which went on to have an enduring legacy far beyond their taxonomical albums.
Keywords: Company Painting, Patnakalam, Modern Indian Art, Indian Art History, British Colonial History, Age of Enlightenment