Previous Year Question

Bani Thani is a celebrated painting of the Kishangarh sub-school. Kishangarh is one of the major sub-schools of the Rajasthani miniature-painting tradition. The NCERT Arts Education syllabus explicitly lists it as “Radha (Bani-Thani)—Nihal Chand—Kishangarh.”

The painting is associated with Nihal Chand, an eighteenth-century painter attached to the court of the Kishangarh ruler Sawant Singh. Sawant Singh composed devotional and romantic poetry concerning Radha and Krishna under the pen name Nagari Das.

Bani Thani is generally represented in the painting as an idealised form of Radha. Kishangarh paintings frequently portrayed Sawant Singh and Bani Thani in the forms of Krishna and Radha.

Its principal features include elongated lotus-shaped eyes, highly arched eyebrows, a long pointed nose, thin lips, a pronounced chin, a curling side-lock, a transparent veil and pearl jewellery. These features subsequently became identifying characteristics of the Kishangarh style.

Radha-Krishna love, devotion and shringara were major subjects of Kishangarh painting. The figures were usually elongated and delicate, while the backgrounds often contained lakes, gardens, distant hills and expansive landscapes.

The Bundi school is noted for luxuriant vegetation, monsoon, wildlife and court scenes; the Jaipur school for Mughal-influenced paintings and portraiture; and Kangra, a Pahari school, for lyrical Radha-Krishna compositions. Bani Thani, however, belongs specifically to the Kishangarh School.