Sikh art

Sikh art, also known as the Sikh School, is the artwork created by or associated with Sikhs and Sikhism. Sikh artwork exists in many forms, such as miniature, oil, and watercolour paintings, murals, and wood carvings. The first Sikh artists were influenced by the Pahari and Mughal schools, however the ushering in of European influences during the colonial-age would transform Sikh art by adoping Western methods and tastes for artwork.
In 19th century Punjab, there were two main types of artists: musawirs and naqqashas. They worked independently of one another and focued on different spheres, with their styles, materials, and techniques differing from one another.
The Musawirs were painters who drew animated objects. Some artists who specialized in this field were Kishan Singh and Chajju, Imam Bakhsh, and Mohammad Bakhsh. The musawir artists relied on their own memory to reproduce an artistic depiction of someone. One method they used was going out into the bazaars to observe people and then returning to their studio to paint the people they witnessed using their recollection. Their works would be sold to patrons, displayed within havelis or religious sites, or be gifted to nobles and rulers as momentos. Some of the figuratives depicted by them include Sikh nobility, saints, or commonfolk.
The word 'naqqash' is equivalent to the meaning of chitrakar, and means "decorator" or "illuminator" and refers to a painter or artist who specialized in decoration, illumination, calligraphy, and ornamentation work of addresses, letter-heads, nikah-namahs, idis, janam-patris, and related documents. Naqqash artists were employed to illuminate Perso-Arabic manuscripts, ornamentation of addresses, letter heads, nikah-namahs (marriage certificates), idis, janam patris (horoscopes) and other kinds of records, and the embellishment of calligraphy. It was common for illuminators to also be able to work as calligraphists. The Sikh school of naqqash was initially influenced by Muslim and Vaishnavist Naqqash artists since the initial ones employed to work at the Harmandir Sahib complex during the beautification project by Ranjit Singh were of this background. Some Naqqashi artists belonged to a familial lineage of artists whilst others had been trained specifically by an existing naqqashi master as a pupil. There existed Naqqashi guilds and also ustad-shagird (teacher-disciple) groups. Training Naqqashi pupils mastered their art by developing "... a vocabulary both through experience and imagination". Guild supervisors or the master (in the case of a master-pupil grouping) would also offer suggestions to further beautify the end-result. A Naqqashi artist's mastery of the art form depended upon the number of years he had been training and his own comprehension of forms, style, pattern, colour application. A Naqqash's capacity to transform to physical art relied upon their grasp of literary sources, daily observations, and manual skills to showcase the language of visual art.
The Naqqash artists often were linked to each-other by family bonds, an example being the household of Kehar Singh. The families were known as gharanas. The places and streets the artisan families lived and work in became known after them. Kehar Singh had two nephews who pursued a career in the arts, them being Kishan Singh and Bishan Singh. Bishan Singh had two sons who became artists, Nihal Singh and Jawahar Singh.
Some of the prominent Sikh artisan lineages, along with prominent members, are as follows (with the lineages often being connected to each-other through marriage):
The lineages of Amir Singh, Ambir Singh, and Sangat Singh were connected through marriage and blood, therefore they can be collectively grouped together and referred to as the "Kehar Singh-Kishan Singh" family.
There were also non-Sikh lineages who played a role in developing Punjabi arts, such as the Chughtai family, whom were Muslim. Additionally, the Hindu family of Purkhu-Nain Sukh also worked for Sikh courts. Furthermore, there were independent artists who did not come from artisan families.
The following mohallas (district, quarter, ward, or neighborhood) of Lahore were known centres of operation for artists in the historical period:
The earliest extant Sikh artwork appear in scriptural texts in the decoratively designed opening folios of the Goindwal pothi, dated to the third quarter of the 16th century during the period of Guru Amar Das. The scripture compiled by Guru Arjan in 1604, known as the Kartarpur Bir, features extensive illumination artwork, with its opening folio extensively illuminated in blue and gold. Later on, the Sikh gurus produced calligraphic Gurmukhi autographs of the Mul Mantar known as nishans, those belonging to gurus Arjan, Hargobind, Har Rai, Tegh Bahadur, and Gobind Singh have been identified and dated between 1600 and 1708. The written orders of the later gurus known as hukamnamas, were also decorated and inscribed with a calligraphic style. B.N. Goswamy argues that painting in the Punjab goes back to the 16th century and became influenced by the Mughal school in the early half of the 18th century.
There exists a reference to a painter arriving at Ramdaspur (Amritsar) for the purpose of creating a portrait of Guru Hargobind. Within the Gurbilas Chhevin Patshahi text, there is an account of two Tarkhan painters (a father and son) creating a painting of Guru Hargobind that the guru had commissioned them to do himself:
When Guru Tegh Bahadur arrived in Dhaka during his travels through the Bengal region in the latter half of the 1660s, Ahsan, the court-painter of Shaista Khan, prepared a painting of him. An account of this can be found both in the Mahima Prakash (1778) by Sarup Das Bhalla and the Suraj Prakash (early 1840s) by Kavi Santokh Singh.
In the Roopa-lekha commissioned by Ram Rai, the eldest son of Har Rai, there exists portraits of the Sikh gurus from Nanak to Har Rai by a Mughal artist. This work was completed before 1688, the year that Ram Rai died, perhaps specifically in 1685. Various contemporary paintings of Guru Gobind Singh dating to the late 1600s gives evidence of accomplished artists of the time working under Sikh patronage. The Sikh school of painting is an amalgamation of both the Mughal and Pahari (with special regard to the Kangra style) schools.
Prior to the rise of the Sikh Confederacy, there existed three main schools of painting in northwestern India at the time: the Mughal School, the Rajput School, and the Kangra School.
The establishment of the Sikh Empire, and the increased wealth and stability in the Punjab as a result, drew many artists from the Hill States in the Punjab Hills region to work under Sikh patronage, leading to greater influence and infusions from the Pahari school into the Sikh school. During the reign of Ranjit Singh, the artistic expressions of jaratkari (inlaid stone and mosaic work), mohrakashi (frescoes), tukri (mirrors and cut-glass work), gach (gypsum and stucco work) and gold embossing reached new heights. There were also developments made during the reign of the Sikh Empire in miniature painting, ivory-work, book illustrations, and frescoes. Paintings created during Sikh-rule can be divided into general categories: portraits, court scenes, equestrian figures, religious themes, and domestic scenes. Most of the individuals depicted in the works were Sikh royals and nobles, as they were the patrons of the artists and wished to have their likeness replicated. Artists operating in the Punjab in this era could be roughly divided into two groups: Pahari emigres and homegrown Punjabi artists. Prior to the reign of Ranjit Singh, artists from the Chughtai family dominated the local Punjabi art-scene, as they had been attached to the Mughal court for quite some time going back generations. However, the Chughtais started working under Sikh patronage when Sikh-rule ushered in. Painting in the Sikh Empire is marked by an emphasis and preponderance with portraiture in-particular.
During the reign of Ranjit Singh, he oversaw over 700 Sikh shrines being decorated with artwork (including paintings). Ranjit Singh conquered the Kangra region, including Guler and Sujanpur Tira. This conquest of major Kangra centres of art precipitated Kangra artists arriving in the Punjab plains and Sikh court, where they would receive royal patronage. Kotla, a centre of Hill Rajput art, was also brought under Sikh writ, which followed with its local artists painting for Sikh patrons and helping develop and establish a Sikh School of art.
In the 19th century, artists originally from Jaipur and Alwar were active in Patiala. Many painters and artisans originally from the Punjabi Hills (or Pahari regions) found employment in the Lahore Durbar and the courts of other states across the region of Malwa (all part of the Punjab Plains). One of the artists who found work in the Durbar of Patiala State or another Phulkian state was Ganga Ram. He may have painted portraits of prominent members and officials of the Patiala court.
Punjabi Sikh forays into art were mostly limited to wall paintings decorating the walls of religious sites up until the early 19th century. Miniature painting depicting Hindu religious scenes and themes was popular in the Punjab Hills amongst the various Rajput states. Between 1810 and 1830, the Sikhs began to commission these Pahari artists to paint Sikh subjects and settings, mostly Sikh royalty and nobility. With the increasing influence and control the Sikh Empire enacted over the Punjab Hills region, local Pahari painters began to work for Sikh patronage, especially during the periods of Sikh governorship over Kangra from 1809 onwards and Guler from 1813 onwards under the governorship of Desa Singh Majithia, Lehna Singh Majithia, and Raja Sher Singh. The Pahari painters began this relationship with their newfound Sikh patrons by painting Sikh gurus, later they delved into depicting particular Sikh rulers and officials. Ranjit Singh himself is said to have disliked portraiture depicting himself, apparently due to his unattractive appearance. However, Ranjit Singh did maintain a company of artists at his court, perhaps to appease some exuberant members of the Sikh court. In January 1836, Baron Hugel visited the Sikh court and was met with a local artist that the court had sent to draw his uniform, with Hugel praising the artistic skills of the artist. Hugel also reported that Hari Singh Nalwa owned a collection of paintings, including one depicting the tale of Nalwa slaughtering a tiger. In March 1837, Godfrey Vigne tried without success to draw a portrait of Ranjit Singh, with Vigne stating the following:
After Sikhs came into increasing contact with Europeans after 1830, the main influence on Punjabi Sikh art shifted from Pahari styles and methods to European ones. The Punjabi form and localization of Company paintings would be born from this increased interaction between European and Punjabi artists. Thus, Pahari-influenced traditional miniature paintings began to be surmounted by European-influenced Company school paintings. Lahori and Amritsari artists increasingly abandoned using the traditional Indic medium of gouache for watercolour techniques. The Company school was less-developed in Punjab and Kashmir as compared to other regions of India by this time as the Sikh Empire was only annexed by the British in 1849, meaning European and Western artistic influences were mostly introduced at a later date compared to other areas of the subcontinent which were annexed years earlier.
In 1838–39, a British visitor hired local Punjabi artists to produce pictures covering the various kinds of inhabitants of northern India using British-supplied paper and bound into an album. Images of the Sikh royals and military were documented in these British-patronized local paintings. Many Europeans were employed by the Lahore Durbar, such as the Frenchman Jean-François Allard, and were sponsors of the local arts. A few European artists who visited the Sikh court of Lahore and left a deep impact on the local art were: G. T. Vigne (visited in 1837), William G. Osborne (visited in 1838), Emily Eden (visited in 1838 alongside her brother), and August Schoefft (arrived in 1841). Eden had a large impact, as her published work Portraits of the Princes and People of India (which included lithographic depictions of Sikhs and Punjabis) was a big success and many copies of the work made their way to Punjab where they ended up giving further shape to the emerging Punjabi Company School. Schoefft spent over a year in Punjab painting various local scenes and subjects. During the Anglo-Sikh Wars, many of the British officials and soldiers who made their way to Punjab were artists. An example is Henry Lawrence, who painted local residents of various walks of life. Many Indian artists who followed the Company school were hired to paint Punjabi subjects and settings.
In Punjab, the work of an artist at the time was considered lowly by the feudal lords, thus most of the active and prominent artists of the period drew from the lower castes, such as Tarkhans (carpenters), Lohars (blacksmiths), Sonars (goldsmiths), or Julaha (weaver) castes, however some were from Brahmin or Chughtai backgrounds. Sikh artists during this era drew almost entirely from the Ramgarhia (carpenters and blacksmiths) caste. Patrons of religious sites carried-out the beautification of their premises through begar (bonded labour) of the artists. Names of prominent artists during the period of the Sikh Empire include Hukama Singh, Muhammad Bakhsh, Kehar Singh, Jivan Ram, Abdullah Painter, Muhammad Azeem, Mian Noor Muhammad, Kishan Singh, Bishan Singh, Lal Singh, Hira Singh, Habib Ullah, Qazi Lutfullah, and many more.
Baba Kehar Singh Musawar was a prominent artist of the Sikh Naqqashi school of art and helped innovate it. He also worked on adornment work. Bhai Bishan Singh (1836–1900), another Sikh artist, was both the pupil and nephew of Kehar Singh. Bishan Singh was skilled in arabesque and was responsible for the commencement of fresh and bright brush strokes. Bishan Singh also was the art teacher of his two sons, Nihal Singh and Jawahar Singh. They painted natural and realistic figuratives, such as flora or fauna, rather than fantastical or mythological-based elements. Nihal Singh was the instructor of Bhai Gian Singh Naqqash, the last of the traditional Sikh muralists. Jawahar Singh, the other son of Bishan Singh, also served as a later instructor of Bhai Gian Singh Naqqash.
Some names of artists who were prominent in floral decoration were Rudh Singh, Amir Singh, Ganesh Singh, Gian Singh, Kapur Singh, Puran Singh, Aroor Singh, and Bhai Gian Singh Naqqash.
Maharaja Sher Singh, unlike his father Ranjit Singh, was interested in portraiture and enjoyed being depicted in them, with Sher Singh having been a handsome man and possessing an attractive personality. Von Orlich visited the Sikh court in 1842 during the reign of Sher Singh and noted the following:
After the assassination of Maharaja Sher Singh, patronage of artists by the Sikh court and rulers continued during the reign of the child-monarch, Maharaja Duleep Singh. Around the time of the British annexation of the Sikh Empire, John Login noted the following regarding paintings of Duleep Singh's court:
By this time, the 19th century miniature painters tended to produce fascimiles of the paintings of earlier artists to sell based upon their likeness to the earlier works, with original works being less-common than before, thus originality started to decline.
After the British annexed the Punjab and adjacent regions in the aftermath of the Second Anglo-Sikh war, traditional Indian artistic methods saw a period of decline, being replaced gradually by European methods. This is attributed to the British taking control over the local administration, economy, and supply chains, with the locally manufactured products and traditional handicrafts not being able to compete with the imported English goods. This led to local artists procuring abandoning local supplies for imported ones, such as English paper, with these imported products being of diverse qualities that were cheap and easily available but not always durable and sympathetic. Furthermore, local artists shifted to meet the demands and tastes of Europeans, rather than local Indian patrons. Many local Indian patrons themselves were shifting to a more European-like taste and affinity for art, as they became attracted by Western imagery and styles. This led to a Europeanization of local Punjabi art after the annexation by the British. The unique Sikh style of artwork that had been developed and cultivated under Sikh-rule continued until the 1860s.
When the Sikh Empire was annexed in 1849, local Punjabi artists working in the Company style created works based upon stock sets for the purpose of selling them to European tourists in the local bazaars. These Punjabi paintings geared towards a European audience depicted "Sikh rulers, heroes, occupations, and costumes". Traditional Sikh art suffered greatly with the establishment of the Mayo School of Art in Lahore (present-day National College of Art) in 1875–76. Native students at the school were instructed in western styles rather than indigenous ones, which led to the decline of the native techniques and methods. The local artists were instructed to create works that suit "... European tastes and requirements". Similar trends of deteriorating Indian art traditions and cultures could be observed in the same period at Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, where Western art was given more importance than indigenous Indic arts.
The Chughtai family shifted from working under Sikh patronage to British patronage with the annexation of Punjab. Kapur Singh had a son named Sardul Singh, whom was an esteemed painter and photographer of Amritsar active around the year 1900.
By the early 20th century, Amritsar and Lahore emerged as the main centres of Sikh art production. Many prominent artists of this time period include Hussain Baksh, Mohammad Alam, K.C. Aryan, Abdul Rahman Chugtai, Mala Ram, Sri Ram, Allah, Bakhsh, S.G. Thakar Singh, Sobha Singh, Hari Singh, Ishwar Singh, Master Gurdit Singh, Kirpal Singh, Jaswant Singh, G.S. Bansal. According to Baijnath Aryan, the Sikh and Hindu bazār folk painters of the Amritsari bazār school were poor, thus they did not have the funds to procure mineral and stone colours for their artistic creations, instead they relied upon aniline colours and would sit without shops or studios on the roadside in Amritsar.
The partition of Punjab in 1947 had a devastating impact on its arts. Sikh and Hindu artists had to leave their ancestral homelands, especially in Lahore, due to the upheaval, with many settling in unfamiliar areas such as Bombay or Delhi.
G.S. Sohan Singh, son of Gian Singh, was a popular and prominent Sikh artist of the 20th century. Sohan Singh painted various themes, such as portraits of Sikh religious and historical figures, Hindu deities, Sikh sites, and scenes of historical events.
Sobha Singh was another popular 20th century painter. He painted on various subjects, such as Sikh gurus. His most well-known works include portraits of the first and tenth Sikh gurus, which can commonly be found adorning the walls of Sikh homes. Another popular work of his was a rendition depicting the lovers Sohni and Mahiwal, from the Punjabi folklore of the same name. Many of his works were reproduced as calendar art.
Sikh art is the third largest collection in the subcontinent after Hindu and Islamic art but it remains severely under-studied and under-appreciated in academia. The Singh Twins are a pair producing Sikh artwork in the present-day. Jatinder Singh Durhailay is a modern artist who has revived the traditional Sikh style of miniature paintings. Gurpreet Singh Mankoo is a modern artist painting in the traditional Sikh muralist style.
Many modern Sikh and Punjabi paintings are recreations of earlier, popular works rather than being entirely original.
Illustrated and illuminated manuscripts form a large corpus of Sikh art. It is perhaps the earliest evidence of Sikh intrigues into the world of art. However, not much is currently known about the artists, scribes, and patrons of this field of historical Sikh artwork.
Researcher Jeevan Singh Deol divides Sikh manuscriptural artwork into three categories:
Sikh manuscript art was influenced early-on in the early 17th century by the Islamicate art traditions. This influence led to elaborate and intricate geometric designs in the early 17th century Sikh manuscript works. By the later 17th century, the geometric designs which characterized earlier written works of the precursory period were replaced with floral motifs and designs. The issued Hukamnamas (edicts) and signed Nishans (signature of a Sikh guru by scribing the Mul Mantar) of the human guru-period contained illuminations and illustrations with both geometric and floral motifs. By the late 18th century, Kashmiri-style manuscript painting became prevalent amongst the Sikhs and were circulated around the Punjab. The mid-to-late 18th century Kashmir-style manuscript art is characterized by "luminous work's vine and floral adornment characteristic". During the reign of Ranjit Singh, many manuscripts of Sikh scriptures were illuminated and written with gold, manuscripts illuminated in such a manner are known as a sunehri bir ("golden volume").
Due to the lack of printing press technology, copies of Sikh scriptures were meticously carried out manually by-hand of a scribe. Completing such a task of writing an entire scripture could take months or even years. Many artists would decorate these handwritten manuscripts through the use of imitation work with calligraphic font with precise focus on even a single letter. Either or both the drawing lines and margin lines were adorned by artists in some corpuses. On certain folios throughout a volume, there could exist manuscript paintings depicting Sikh gurus. On other pages, there could exist text with roundels containing portraits of Sikh religious figures (usually gurus) surrounding the body of text. Oftentimes there is an elaborately and artistically designed border surrounding the body of text, these borders may contain floral motifs overlaid on various coloured backgrounds and surroundings within the border. Whilst Islamic illumination works usually showcase geometric patterns with blue and gold, Sikh illumination can differ, with one surviving example of illumination being a floral design with yellow, gold, and blue.
Presentations of the Japji Sahib composition within a decorated manuscript could vary by how the work was written.
The art of preparing illustrated and illuminated manuscripts of scriptures died-out amongst Sikhs at the end of the 19th century due to the introduction of the printing-press, which replaced the practice and patronization of handwriting manuscripts.
The Janamsakhi literature produced was often elaborately illustrated with paintings on the folios, each depicting a life story of the first Guru. It is one of the earliest sources of Sikh art. Composition of illustrated Janamsakhi series of manuscripts flourished in the 17th and 18th centuries. Alongside hagiographical accounts of the life of the first guru, Nanak, written mostly in Gurmukhi script, they also contained paintings illustrating supposed events from his life. The paintings of the Bhai Bala tradition of Janamsakhis was influenced by Sufi stylisms. Guru Nanak is often depicted between the boundaries of Hinduism and Islam, which can be deduced with special regard and attention made to his attire in the paintings.
The earliest illustrated Janamsakhi manuscripts are as follows:
The art of illustrated Janamsakhi manuscripts declined following the introduction of the printing press in Punjab during the 1870s.
Sikh miniature painting was derived from the Pahari school of painting. Many Sikh paintings tend to depict rajas, nobles and courtiers but there also works showing common folks going about their daily professions or way-of-life.
Portraiture is believed to have commenced during the guruship period of Guru Hargobind, continuing until the guruship of Guru Gobind Singh. As the court of the Sikh gurus grew in importance, so did its attraction to painters. A Lahori painter by the name of Allah Bakhsh painted based on themes from the life of Krishna, incorporating mystical motifs, aesthetically pleasing colour selection, and fine craftsmanship.
Maharaja Ranjit Singh had invited European artists into his realm, perhaps as a means to develop cordial relations with the British. These arriving European artists would introduce their foreign techniques and styles to the Indic painting landscape, which led to the local artists becoming influenced by them, with some natives outright adopting European styles of painting. Their cheaper methods of producing portraiture work which was uptaken by local Indians would lead to the developing of the later Bazaar School. Some European artists would work within the Sikh state and shortly after its annexation into the Company Raj include August Theodore Schoefft, Emily Eden, Baron Hugel, Helen, and William Carpenter. Ranjit Singh is said to have disfavoured portraiture due to his physical disfigurement from smallpox and other handicaps. However, despite the reigning monarch having a personal distate to being painted in the form of portraiture, some works of his likeness were still produced. These surviving portraits of the Sikh ruler were done by Delhite, Jodhpuri, Pahari, and a few European painters. During the rule of the Sikh Empire, particular importance was placed on portraiture. Emily Eden recounted that Ranjit Singh responded positively when she gifted him a portrait she made of Queen Victoria.
August Schoefft introduced the method of large-sized, oil painting to the Punjabi landscape, which led to slight influences on this works produced in this final period of Sikh rule. Schoefft had arrived to the Sikh court during the reign of Maharaja Sher Singh, where he remained for about a year's time painting portraitures. Emily Eden, another European artist, had also travelled to the Punjab during the height of the Sikh Empire and created works depicting many of the people and places she witnessed on her journey. Among her works include a rare portraiture drawing of Ranjit Singh seated cross-legged in a chair, with the work showing some influence from traditional Indian art styles, this drawing was later painted by L. Dickinson. Thus, the paintings during the reign of Ranjit Singh incorporated both local and foreign methods and stylisms. William Carpenter would produce various watercolours of local Sikh scenes shortly after the colonization of the Sikh territory.
Oil painting by local Punjabi and Sikh artists can perhaps be traced back to the 1830s and attributed to the artists Jeevan Ram and Hasn-al-Din. Both had been in the entourage of William Bentinck, whereupon thereafter they came to develop a preference for bigger-sized oil paintings over the small, traditional miniature paintings local to the region. Among prominent local artists of Ranjit Singh's state, the names of Imam Bakhash, Kishan Singh, and Bishan Singh are to be noted. All three of them had worked in the Kangra-Sikh style of painting.
Imam Bakhsh of Lahore executed commissions for the Europeans employed by the Sikh Empire's military, such as Claude-Auguste Court, Jean-Francois Allard, and Jean-Baptiste Ventura, however no known self-portraits of Imam Bakhsh have come-to-light.
Kishan Singh was skilled in illustration magnifying designs whereas his brother Bishan Singh was talented in depicting courtly durbar scenery. One of the most important of the court painters of Ranjit Singh was Kehar Singh, who had no equal in importance. Both Kehar Singh and Kapur Singh would depict everyday life scenes of the local populace, such as different occupational workers in varying crafts and trades. As to Kehar Singh's work, there was European influence on the effects of light and shade in his art pieces.
Kishan Singh was a Sikh artist who had been employed by royal courts located in Amritsar, Kapurthala, and Lahore. Whilst working in Lahore, Kishan Singh helped facilitate the arrival of other artists. Kishan's son, Kapur Singh, also rose to become an accomplished artist in his own right. Kapur Singh closely observed the European painters whilst he was in Kapurthala, and made detailed note of their usage of oil painting procedures. After observing the foreign artists, Kapur Singh would adopt their techniques of oil and watercolour painting and become a master in it himself. However, Kapur also delved in producing miniatures.
In Punjab during the late 19th to early 20th century, the prevailing Kangra style of painting had lost its importance and been replaced with a newer form of painting called the Bazaar School, which was similar to Western and folk art. The Bazaar School would produce works showcasing Indic mythological and historical themes and motifs in the form of Calendar art. In the 20th century, local artists were producing works of normal landscapes of the region, mythology, epics, and legends. Sikh artists by that point were employing lithography and woodcut method to produce popular Sikh pictorial artwork. Prior to the introduction of the printing press, indulgence in painting was relegated to the sole domain of the rich due to its expense. After the printing press' introduction to the Sikhs, the common masses were able to luxuriate in paintings through woodcut and lithograph-based art which could be cheaply mass-produced in comparison to the traditional art methods of the past.
The art of mural painting dates back to ancient times in India, with early surviving specimens being the Ajanta Caves' frescoes. There exists very old murals within the Punjab region itself, with an extant example being the wall paintings of the Lahore Fort, commissioned during the reign of the Mughal emperor Akbar. Even though Islam is iconoclastic, many Islamic patrons of the art of murals existed, which helped develop the artform in the Punjab. However, Islamic murals focused on floral motifs with less attention paid to figuratives of humans and other animals. Sikh wall paintings (known as mohra-kashi in Punjabi) started gaining popularity in the 18th century and flourished during the 19th century. However, very few works of this form are extant in the modern era due to them being destroyed by renovations. In the past, murals covered the walls of important buildings, such as gurdwaras, samadhis, deras, and akharas. Residential structures, such as havelis, dharamshalas, and bungas, were also plastered with fresco works.
Naqqashi muralists developed their own lingo and vernacular terms to differentiate their various themes and designs. The most prominent design category was referred to as Dehin, which is described as "a medium of expression of the imaginative study of the artist's own creation of idealized forms". The base of dehin is known as Gharwanjh. Gharwanjh is a "decorative device involving knotted grapples between animals". The gharwanjh designs of the Golden Temple features cobras, lions, and elephants holding one another or carrying floral vases which feature fruit and fairies as decoration. The decorative border of the dehin is known as Patta, usually utilizing creepers for its design. Furthermore, some dehin feature designs incorporating aquatic creatures.
Themes and patterns of floral and foliage designs are prominent in Sikh murals. Geometry was an important consideration in the Sikh art of mohrakashi. Thick brush strokes were used by the mohrakashi artists. Brushes made of goat hair and between 1 and 5 and squirrel hair brushes between 1 and 4 were used by the traditional Sikh muralists. Earthly colours were produced for the purpose of withstanding the lime. Animal motifs, such as representations of peacocks, tigers, deer, and other creatures, were used to "accentuate the substantial regional essence of the painting".
The oldest extant Sikh mural art works are the ones found painted on the walls of Gurdwara Sri Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib in Bahadurgarh, dated between 1670 and 1720, and the samadh of Bhai Dalla, located near Takht Damdama Sahib in Talwandi Sabo, dated between 1710 and 1740. In the era of the Sikh Conferderacy, various leaders of the component Misls sponsored the art of murals. The houses of residents were decorated with murals, using lime plaster overlaid on the brickwork of the structure, depicting Sikh gurus, Sikh chieftains, or various episodes from Sikh history or Indic mythology.
Amid the murals based on profane subjects, depictions of scenes from traditional Punjabi folklore are commonplace, such as Heer Ranjha, Mirza Sahiban, Sohni Mahiwal, Sassi Pannu, Laila Majnun, Raja Rasalu, and more. There are also paintings based upon traditional folk ballads, such as Puran Bhagat. There are further depictions of various royal figures, such as Rani Jindan. Many Punjabi wall paintings depict women and girls in the process of a variety of actions, such as feeding parrots, peacocks, or bucks. Women are also depicted fondling pets or writing love letters in these wall paintings.
Usually displayed less conspicuously, there were also wall paintings depicting sexual or erotic themes. It was a common practice to decorate the walls of Islamic and Hindu palaces with erotic scenes. The Sikh royalty and nobility during the reign of the Sikh Empire had their residences embellished with these erotic wall paintings. General Paolo Avitabile had his private residence quarters decorated with figures of scantily clad dancing girls and Indic deities in the act of making love. At the Rani Mahal of erstwhile Nabha State, there are wall paintings of couples having sex in various positions, settings, and emotions based upon the Koka Shastra treatise. However, it is important to note that these erotic murals were limited mostly to the areas frequented by the upper classes of the Punjabi society at the time.
The art of frescoes was introduced by the artist Bhai Kehar Singh Musawar under the patronage of Maharaja Ranjit Singh during the era of the Sikh Empire. Kehar Singh was responsible for decorating the interiors of Ranjit Singh's Lahori palace with frescoes. After Ranjit Singh witnessed the fine artwork of Kehar Singh, he decided to commission him for beautifying the Golden Temple shrine in Amritsar to embellish it with mural work (such as the domes, walls, and roofs). Hari Singh Nalwa and the Attariwalas were patrons of mural artwork. When Ranjit Singh invaded Chiniot in 1810, he came to learn from one of his commanders that the havelis of the region were elaborately decorated by mohrakashi (fresco) work. Thereafter the monarch decided, as a means of devoting himself faithfully to the shrine, to decorate the interiors of the Harmandir Sahib complex in Amritsar with naqqashi art. Muslim artisans from Chiniot and Faizabad were invited to participate in decorating the interior of the Sikh shrine. Vaishnavist artists also assisted initially. The beautification project was entrusted to Bhai Sant Singh. An example of Islamicate influence leftover from these initial Muslim Naqqash artists is the Irani motif of two or four big flowers arranged sparsely. Artistic specimens leftover from the impact that the initial Vaishnavist Naqqash artists can also be witnessed, such as patterns with bold flowers and leaves to portray Krishna's raslila. As per Madanjit Kaur, whilst the Sikh School of mural painting took influences from both Islamic and Hindu traditions, it became its own tradition in its own right with its own manner of depicting and settings. An example of a difference that Amritsari Sikh murals have against the Pahari murals is related to the background, where the landscape is often omitted in Amritsari murals but is an important aspect of Pahari murals.
Names of some prominent figures who helped start and develop the Sikh mohrakashi school includes Din Mohammad, Jawahar Latuni, Dacha, Sharaf-ud-Din, Malha Ram, and others. Due to their non-Sikh background, these Muslim or Hindu artists had to delve into Sikh philosophy to better match their objective when painting for Sikh settings. Baba Kehar Singh Musawar, a Sikh artist, was an innovator in the mohrakashi school and is believed to have been the first to introduce avian (bird) designs to the frescoes. General Jean-François Allard and General Jean-Baptiste Ventura, two European men who worked in the Sikh military, had their personal residences decorated with a fresco depicting each in the midst of battle.
Amritsar city had become an important centre for Sikh and Punjabi mural art. British cultural influences led to the diffusion of Western styles and other influences upon the local murals. Murals did not vary in popularity along religious lines, as Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims all employed the artform and were enthusiastic regarding it. Whilst Sikhism did not support idolatry, figures of the Sikh gurus were still depicted as figuratives within mural art by the Sikhs. Important Sikh shrines which were decorated with fine examples of Sikh mural artwork (besides the Golden Temple) include Gurdwara Pothimala (located in Guru Harsahai, Firozpur), the Akal Takht (Amritsar, painted in the 19th century), Gurdwara Baba Atal (Amritsar), Gurdwara Lohgarh Sahib (Faridkot), and Gurdwara Baba Veer Singh (Amritsar). Another Amritsari location that was decorated with murals was the Akhara Bala Nand building, which is associated with the Udasi sect of Sikhism. When a juncture occurred, the murals were distributed into various panels, a similarity shared with Chamba murals. The mural panel would represent differing themes from one another.
When Ranjit Singh died in 1839, the artists who worked under the beautification project of the Golden Temple complex were locally sourced instead. Most of the artisans and naqqashi artists who worked on the Golden Temple are unknown but one specimen of an undersigned name exists on a naqqash dating to circa 1960, revealing the work was done by a certain Atma Singh Naqqash. Hari Singh, himself an artist, prepared a list as per his knowledge of the artists who had once worked painting the interiors and exteriors of the Golden Temple complex, the list of twenty names includes Baba Kishan Singh, Baba Bishan Singh, Kapur Singh, Bhai Kehar Singh, Mahant Ishar Singh, Bhai Sardul Singh, Bhai Jawahar Singh, Bhai Metab Singh, Mistri Jaimal Singh, Bhai Harnam Singh, Bhai Ishar Singh, Bhai Gian Singh, Lal Singh Tarn Taran, Bhai Mangal Singh, Mistri Narain Singh, Mistri Jit Singh, Bhai Atma Singh, Baba Darja Mal, and Bhai Vir Singh. However, the frescoes now seen to the naked eye within the Golden Temple are no longer the originals, as they have since been overpainted. The frescoes of the Golden Temple have been re-painted and restored several times throughout the years. Sometimes, white backgrounds of the original frescoes were completely repainted to cover the dirtying white background. Floral and avian motifs were completely painted over if the paint began flaking-off. Prior retouchings of the frescoes located in the Parikrama zone of the Golden Temple involved watercolours but the frescoes located on the ceilings and arches of the shrine had been carried out with a thick coat of some kind of synthetic medium. Up til 2013, the authorities overseeing the Golden Temple were ignorant about treating the frescoes, restoring them to their original state, nor preserving them but instead opted to repaintings and overpaintings for the most part. The last artist to conduct overpainting work on the murals at the shrine was Bhai Atma Singh. When paint was flaking-off at multiple times in history, the affected area was repainted by various artists. Most of the wall paintings at the Golden Temple now have protective glass covering them.
Located nearby to the Golden Temple in Amritsar is another Sikh shrine, a towering, eight-storied, octagonal-shaped complex known as Gurdwara Baba Atal. On the second floor of this building the walls are elaborately and profusely embellished with wall paintings depicting episodes relayed throughout the Janamsakhi literature, relating to the life of Guru Nanak. Events from the birth of Nanak to the successorship of Angad are displayed. Gurdwara Baba Atal's murals originally date to the 19th century and were painted in a bold form.
During the height of the Amritsari mural art tradition, there existed a street in the city known as Gali Naquas, where Sikh naqqash artists specializing in mohrakashi lived. Some prominent Sikh muralists who lived on the street were Puran Singh Mussavar and Amir Singh. Another Amritsari muralist, Hari Singh, had also done artwork in the city but his work had been destroyed in the partition of 1947. The Sikh princely states of Patiala, Nabha, Jind, Faridkot, and Kapurthala also patronized muralists and featured extensive mural artwork in their capitals.
The Sikh and Punjabi mural art tradition survived into the British rule, continuing into the late 19th century and beyond. Whilst the art of murals fell into decline thus after, it has recently been revived by newer artists, such as Gurpreet Singh Mankoo. In 1985, Kanwarjit Singh Kang identified 175 sites in then Punjab that had extant mural artwork dating to the 19th century.
The process of producing a wall painting as per the traditional Sikh school is as follows:
At the Golden Temple, the walls which contain frescoes are made of bricks which were baked until they turned red in-colour, which had been placed with sand-lime mortar. Lime was the fundamental component needed for the preparation of the surface of the brick walls for fresco painting. The lime was applied on wettened walls. The plaster was composed of slaked lime and sand was pressed into the joints of the wall and forged all throughout with a long-strip of wood (garmala) edgeways till it is slightly desiccated and plain. Once it reached that state, the next stage involved working in intonaco, which is a finely grained plaster layer which covers a rougher layer called the arriccio. Finally, as the plaster somewhat dried and became adherent, it was polished with an agate polishing stone until the surface was cast with the artwork.
Many colours were used in murals (with various methods of naturally creating each pigment), some of which are as follows:
Various tools are required for painting frescoes, such as Karandi (bricklayer's trowel or plastering trowel), Tasla (iron tasla), Tesi (belt axe), Chhanna (window mesh sieve), two variants of hand floats known locally as Gurmala (steel [flat or finishing trowel] and wood [wooden fresco hand float]), Patti (scraper), and Spray (watering spray gun).
Some materials needed to be purchased or prepared for painting murals are Keri (red brick dust), Rayh-taah (grey sand), Bhejya Chunna (slaked lime), lime putty (such as CTS Company's chunna), and Chhappai da kagaz (tracing paper).
A form of bas-relief work, known as repoussé plaques, using metal like brass and copper panels, were a popular form of art in the 19th and early 20th century. These panels were often gilded (covered in a layer of gold). This form of art-craft is known in Punjabi as ubhar-da-kam (meaning "raised work"; from ubhar i.e. swelling or raising). Many surviving panels depicting Sikh religious figures and sakhis remain extant and are enshrined on Sikh religious edifices, such as the Golden Temple and nearby Gurdwara Baba Atal Rai. The panels often also depict floral motifs and designs. Most of the surviving panel works in the Golden Temple are floral whilst Gurdwara Baba Atal Rai contains many figurative works. Embellishments were wrought into the copper or brass panels by Thathera artisans, craftsmen, or guilds, the most renowned of which were located in Kucha Fakirkhana in Lahore. Usage of brass for artistic crafts were most popular in Rewari, Jagadhri, Amritsar, Jandiala, Phagwara, Gujranwala, Pindi Dadan Khan and Kangra in the late 19th century. The panels were often patronized by a devotee in the form of a donation. Most of the patrons and craftsmen worked and donated anonymously, however the panels at Gurdwara Baba Atal Rai contain Gurmukhi inscriptions identifying patrons, the crafting worker or guild, and date of execution of the work, a rare occurrence. This style of art declined once devotees started displaying their donations in the form of marble slabs being affixed to edifices instead of elaborate, expensive, and decorated gilded panels in the 20th century. As such, this form of art is nearly extinct at present. A few expert craftsmen from as little as three or four families, from the Thathera community, remain in Amritsar who have passed down the know-how on how to execute this art form of metal reliefs, though younger generations are not interested in learning the trade.
The art method of jaratkari (also known as munavat), comparable to pietra dura (inlaid stone design), uses various coloured stones engraved and inlaid into marble, is a common expression of art at Sikh shrines, such as at the Golden Temple. The stones were mostly sourced from Rajasthan and were of the Neelam, Nag, Surkha, Lajwart, and Kattu varieties. Other kinds of stones of varying colours were also used, such as jaratkari, haqiaue (red and pink), zeharmora (green), khattu pathat (yellow), sabaz pathar (dark green), sabaz pathar nargiz (green), sang yaashap (green, light green, white, and blue), Arabic smak (light black) and sang pasham (light green). The process for creating inlaid stone artwork first involves a drawing sketch of the hypothesized work. This conception is then transferred onto a marble slab. The original conceptual sketch alongside any planned colouring schemes is provided by the Naqqash (artist) to the stone-dresser so that cutting of varying coloured stones can occur. The required stone patterns are then emplaced on the marble slab by a pather-ghara. The process required carefully emplacing delicate pieces of stone into the marble panel. Jaratkari was an art form and method which involved placing inlaid and cut stones of varying colours and types into marble. Surviving exemplars of jaratkari art from the Golden Temple can be found on the bottom section of the exterior walls which are encased with marble panels featuring jaratkari artwork. The jaratkari marble panels in this lower exterior section is classified as pietra dura and semi-precious stones, like lapis lazuli and onyx, were utilized. Whilst the Mughals also decorated their edifices using jaratkari and pietra dura art, what sets apart the Sikh form of the art technique from the Mughal one is that the Sikh jaratkari art form also depicts human and animal figuratives with it, something that is not found in Mughal jaratkari art.
Gach can be described as a kind of stone or gypsum. Gach was transformed into a paste and used on the walls, similar in nature to lime-plaster. Once applied to the wall, it was decorated into shape with steel cutters and other tools. Sometimes the gach had coloured glass pieces placed on it, which is known as tukri. The Shish Mahal room of the Golden Temple features many examples of tukri work.
Inlaid ivory work can be witnessed on the doors of the Darshani Deori structure of the complex. The structure of the Darshani Deori was made of shisham wood, the front of the edifice is overlaid with silverwork, including ornamated silver panels. The back of the structure is decorated with panels consisting of floral and geometric designs but also animal figuratives, such as deer, tigers, lions, and birds. Portions of the inlaid ivory had been coloured red or green, an aspect of the artwork that was praised by H.H. Cole for its harmoniousness.
Wood-carving artwork was mostly associated with doors and window-frames, it was usually highly ornamented. Some wood-carvings were figurative, such as depicting Nihangs. These wood carvings were commonly found near the entrance facade of shrines. It could also be found in the front of the balconies of residential dwellings. Some major centres of wood carving were Chiniot, Bhera, and Rohtak. Talented wood carvers could also be found at Lahore, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur, Batala, Zira, Samana, Sunam, and Hissar. The Sikh art of wood carving mostly died out during the colonial era. Most specimens of this style have disappeared due to neglect or decay except for hardy surviving specimens made out deodar tree wood.
Whilst the early history of the art of photography in the Punjab is shrouded in mystery, the first photographs taken of Sikhs of whom the identity of the lensman is known were snapped by John McCosh, a British military surgeon employed by the East India Company who had been stationed at Firozpur. He snapped photographs during the Second Anglo-Sikh War between 1848 and 1849, some of the earliest known examples of war photography in history. Using calotype technology, he captured images of individual Sikh persons and notable locations within Lahore. In 1848, McCosh snapped a portrait photograph of the then reigning 10-year-old child monarch, Maharaja Duleep Singh of the Sikh Empire, seated on a chair in a profile pose. McCosh also took images of Diwan Mulraj, a few Sikh chieftains, granthis, and the samadhi of Maharaja Ranjit Singh (which had been erroneously captioned as a tomb). In November 1849, John McCosh requested permission from John Login to capture daguerrotype photographs of "all the notabilities" of the Sikh Empire, including Mul Raj who was then held at the Lahore Fort, Login politely declined and replied that McCosh did not have permission to capture photographs of the prisoners at Lahore Fort.
One of the earliest photographers of the Golden Temple in Amritsar was a man by the name of Charles Waterloo Hutchinson, he clicked a photo of the site in 1856, seven years after the fall of the Sikh kingdom. However, none of Hutchinson's works are known to have survived till the present-day. Ethnographic photographs of a Lahori Sikh man were taken by the German ethnologist Andreas Fedor Jagor in the late 1850s. Another early pioneer of photographing Sikhs was the Italian-British Felice Beato, whom had been traversing the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent in the aftermath of the Indian Mutiny of 1857. Some specimens he portrayed in his photographic works include Akali-Nihangs, Sikh soldiers employed in the colonial military (such as in Hodson's Horse), and various views of the Golden Temple shrine and complex of Amritsar. Prominent photographers and studios who captured Golden Temple and other Sikh sites in the 19th and early 20th centuries with their lens' were Samuel Bourne (1863–65), John Edward Saché (1860s), William Baker (1864–66), James Craddock (1868–70), W. G. Stretton (1870), Baker & Burke (1872), Bourne & Shepherd (1880s–90s), A. Skeen (1900), Hannah P. Adams (1906), Herbert G. Ponting (1906), Underwood & Underwood (1908), Stereo Travel Co. (1908), and H. Templar (1910).
Many priceless Sikh heritage sites (including their architecture and artwork) have been destroyed or altered beyond recognition under the guise of "kar seva" renovations by various institutions and groups in recent-times. An example of these haphazard and destructive renovations is an incident involving some of the frescoes at Gurdwara Baba Atal, which were replaced with bathroom tiles and plaster by kar seva groups. At some point, painted walls fell out of fashion in the Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Haryana and were thus replaced by whitewashing them to create distempered walls. Many are also defaced by visitors who vandalize them with writing. Many groups are rushing to digitize what remains for posterity before they are lost, such as Panjab Digital Library.
Kanwarjit Singh Kang is a documenter of Sikh art, who has amassed a vast collection of 40,000 photographs of Punjabi wall paintings he has taken throughout his career. He has published many books analyzing the context of various murals he has captured with his camera.
Shahid Shabbir is a Pakistani who has documented countless Sikh heritage sites (most often neglected, dilapidated, or abandoned) located in his country, including their extant artwork and architecture.
Very few literary works exists documenting the history of Sikh art. Many Indian art historians have a cautious or even a caustic opinion of painting of the Punjab. According to Amélie Couvrat Desvergnes, the lives of the painters who were active in Amritsar and Lahore during the 19th century are shrouded in mystery and unknown due to the lack of records and signed pieces, causing their biographies and productions to not be well-documented.
Some private collections of hold Sikh art include:
The Toor Collection contains paintings, written work, photographs, maps, and craftwork.
The Toor Collection contains works of native artists, such as the familial atelier of Nainsukh of Guler, Ram Chand of Patiala, Sheikh Basharat Ullah of Patiala & Nabha, the familial atelier of Purkha (fl. 1780–1820) of Kangra, the atelier of Imam Bakhsh Lahori of Lahore, Rattan Singh of Lahore & Delhi, Muhammad Bakhsh of Lahore, Bishan Singh (1836–ca.1900) of Amritsar, Kapur Singh (fl. 1860–1890) of Amritsar, the familial atelier of Abdullah of the Punjab Plains (attributed), Harbhagat Singh of Lahore, and Sani the 'Draftman' of Jalandhar.
In-addition to native artists, the works of foreign, European artists are also kept in the collection, such as August Schoefft (1809–1888), Colesworthey Grant (1813–1880), Egron Lundgren (1815–1875), Helen Catherine Douglas Mackenzie (ca.1819–ca.1910), Walter Fane (1828–1885), George Landseer (1834–1878), Isabella Frances Gill, Mortimer Menpes (1855–1938), Lucien Lévy-Dhurmer (1865–1953), and Fred Taylor (1875-1963).
Photographs taken by the following individuals and studios are kept in the collection: Maharaja Duleep Singh (1838–1893), Ernst Becker (1826–88), Margaret Bourke-White (1904–1971), William Baker (died 1880), Samuel Bourne (1834–1912), Fred Bremner (1863–1942), James Craddock (fl. 1861–1890), Lala Deen Dayal (1844–1905), Francis Frith Studio, Herbert Ponting (1870–1935), Arthur Robertson (fl. 1960s), John Saché (1865–1882), Charles Shepherd (1858–1878), Felice Beato (1832–1909), Jean Baptiste Oscar Malitte (c 1820–1905), George Western (1837–1907), John W. Clarke (ca.1823–1893), John Moffat (1819–1894), Antoine Claudet (1797–1867), Henri Claudet (1829–1880), W. Farrell & Co., Valentine Blanchard, John Burke (1843–1900), G. W. Lawrie (fl. 1880's–1890s), Hugh Owen (1808–1897), Theodore J. Hoffman (ca. 1855–1921), P. A. Johnston (died 1891), Randolph B. Holmes (1888–1973), Henri R. Ferger (fl. 1920s), John W. Brooke (fl. 1916–1918), Mela Ram (fl. 1910–1920), and William Willoughby Hooper (1837–1912).
Works by the following cartographers can be found in the Toor Collection: Rigobert Bonne (1727–1794), John Cary (ca. 1754–1835), John Luffman (1756–1846), Robert Wilkinson (fl. ca. 1768–1825), and John Arrowsmith (1780–1873).
Creations by the following craftsmen can be found in the collection: Muhammad Hayat of Punjab and Henry Wilkinson of Pall Mall, London.