RAS question
In the discussion on Rajasthan painting, which view is associated with Brown and similar early writers?
Correct answer: (A) They treated Rajasthani painting as Rajput style and Nathdwara painting as Udaipur style..
Brown and similar early writers associated Rajasthani painting with the Rajput style and treated Nathdwara painting as part of the Udaipur style.
Explanation
The point being tested is an early classification of Rajasthan painting, not the later, more settled school-wise view. RajRAS/Connect Civils places Mr. Brown with Smith, G. A. Grierson and G. Thomas under the label of Rajput art, while it separately lays out the Mewar/Udaipur context and includes Nathdwara within that painting tradition. Brown-type early writing folded Rajasthani painting into the broad Rajput category and read Nathdwara paintings through the Udaipur style. The contrast matters because later research recognised several regional schools under the wider Rajasthani tradition, instead of treating the whole field as a single Rajput or Udaipur-derived style.
Why the other options are wrong
- (B) This misattributes the role of drawing attention to Rajasthan's rich painting tradition; the Brown-linked view concerns early classification, not first discovery or attention.
- (C) The classification separates the Hindu-style label from Brown, placing Brown among writers associated with Rajput art instead.
- (D) This describes the later scholarly position that recognised multiple regional schools under Rajasthani painting, whereas Brown is tied to the earlier Rajput-style grouping.
Concept
This tests historiography and classification in Rajasthan's painting traditions: how early writers labelled the art before later scholarship refined the regional schools. RAS repeats this because art-history questions often turn on who used which label, not just on stylistic features.