RAS question
Bikaner school of painting shows influence of which other style?
Correct answer: (A) Mughal and Deccani style.
The Bikaner school of painting shows Mughal and Deccani influence.
Explanation
Bikaner painting is best identified here by its Mughal and Deccani influence. That influence is linked to painters such as Ali Raza and Ruknuddin, who came from the Deccan to the Bikaner court. The Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art page identifies the work as belonging to the Bikaner school in Rajasthan, and says Deccani painting helped transform Bikaner painting into a refined late-seventeenth-century aesthetic. It also notes Bikaner rulers' long Deccan ties through service as Mughal generals. Taken together, the painter movement and court contact explain why the Bikaner style is not a purely local idiom but a synthesis shaped by both Mughal and Deccani currents.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) Chinese style is wrong because Chinese influence is not identified in the Bikaner school.
- (C) Persian style only is wrong because the tested influence is Mughal and Deccani, not a single Persian source.
- (D) British style is wrong because Deccan-linked painters worked at the Bikaner court, while the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art discusses Deccani transformation rather than British influence.
Concept
This tests Rajasthan painting schools, especially how court patronage and artist movement shaped regional styles. It recurs in RAS because Bikaner is a standard Rajasthan art-history example where style influence matters more than memorising a ruler's name.