Aspirant Academy
ENHI

RAS question

Basohli painting, the earliest known school of Pahari miniature painting, flourished from approximately the mid-17th century. Which of the following is a DISTINCTIVE feature that differentiates Basohli paintings from other Pahari schools?

Correct answer: (B) Intense primary colours, thick bold lines, large expressive eyes, and beetle-wing (elytra) embellishments.

Basohli paintings are distinguished by intense primary colours, thick bold lines, large expressive eyes, and shiny beetle-wing embellishments used in jewellery.

  1. (A)

    Soft pastel tones, delicate shading, and naturalistic landscape backgrounds

  2. (B)

    Intense primary colours, thick bold lines, large expressive eyes, and beetle-wing (elytra) embellishments

  3. (C)

    Mughal-influenced portraiture with detailed court scenes and Persian calligraphy borders

  4. (D)

    Fine brush-work with minute detail, gold ornamentation, and Rajput courtly themes

Explanation

Basohli is treated as the earliest major Pahari pictorial idiom, beginning the hill-state tradition before the Guler-Kangra and Kangra refinements. The NCERT chapter describes Basohli work as dramatic and distinctive, with a strong use of primary colours and warm yellows, stylised vegetation, and raised white paint to suggest pearls in ornaments. Its most significant marker is the use of small shiny green particles of beetle wings to delineate jewellery and imitate emeralds. Basohli is not a soft, naturalistic school, but a forceful style built around vivid yellows, reds and greens, thick angular lines, large lotus-petal eyes, and devotional or religious themes such as the Bhagavata Purana and Devi Mahatmya.

Why the other options are wrong

  • (A) Soft pastel tones, delicate shading and naturalistic landscape backgrounds point to the later Kangra idiom, whereas Basohli is marked by bold primary colour and forceful line.
  • (C) Detailed Mughal court scenes and Persian calligraphic borders belong to Mughal court painting, while Basohli is identified here by a bold native devotional style and beetle-wing jewellery details.
  • (D) Although Basohli could use ornament, its distinguishing test feature is not fine Rajput courtly detail but vivid flat colour, thick line and beetle-wing embellishment.

Concept

This tests recognition of Pahari miniature schools through visual markers rather than patron names alone. RAS repeats such questions because art-history styles are often separated by palette, line, themes and material techniques.

Source

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