Manaku of Guler: The Life and Work of another great Indian Painter from a small Hill State

Manaku of guler was Artist of Punjab hills and B.n. goswamy published his entire work. All known pages Ascribed or Attributed to manaku are trace in this book. First part of Book contain Historical career of manaku. While catalogue has selected masterpieces by manaku from his 'siege of Lanka' Series, 'Gita govinda', 'Bhagavata purana', 'Ashwa-shastra' and some other. Third Part contain About Manaku information by Different art historian like N.c. Mehta, Karl khandalavala, m.s. Randhawa and w.g. Archer. Last part of reconstruction show whole Paintings and Drawing of Manaku related to Hindu epics. Every single folio show a unique episode of hindu epics.

This book Nainsukh of Guler is a miniaturepainting book. And it is not batter then Pahari Masters Court painting book. After all the book is good one . If u have Pahari Masters painting book so u don't bye it .

Amazing book - so much history behind Kangra art. Had bought some Kangra art from Dharmsala, got intrigued, so bought this book. Loved learning about the rich history behind it.

Images are very similar. They can think about it. Otherwise the book is good.

Beautiful, absolutely stunning, a must read.

Book is awesome.but the printing quality is not so good. And picture are very small in size..

Goswamy is most famous for, Vasari like, unearthing the histories of Pahari painters. He’s proved that it was the family workshops from which their styles emitted even as they travelled from kingdom to kingdom in search of patronage. The artist he’s most intimately associated with is Nainsukh of Guler, although he’s written about his father, Pundit Seu and two generations of artists after him. But Manaku - Nainsukh’s elder brother, has always been a shadowy figure whose existence has been a subject of controversy. Also, his body of work has always been disputed because of the complete change in styles between folios. For example, his Gita Govinda series bears the glittering beetle wing cases and the extreme stylization that we associate with Basholi paintings, while the drawings that we see in the Bhagavat Purana series are very natural.Goswamy has produced a formidable suggested timeline for an anonymous artist that he admires greatly, even if he doesn’t feel the same intimacy with him as with Nainsukh. In this book, he uses evidence like a line in a bahi of a pandit in Haridwar that records the names of Manaku and two cousins in 1736, along with a simple line- drawn portrait on the page as well as a line from another bahi in 1763 where Nainsukh mentions his brother Manaku as evidence to prove his existence. He’s also unearthed two portraits that he says are Manaku’s – one possibly posthumous, that help narrow down the timelines.But, what this book actually does is catalogue as much of the artist’s works as Goswamy could locate, so that similar stylistic devices can be seen. There are 15 full paintings and drawings from the Siege of Lanka series (that he worked on, but didn’t complete); 30 from the Gita Govinda series; 58 drawings and paintings from the Bhagavata Purana series; 7 from the Ashwa-Shastra - an unusual series that’s drawn on rough paper and looks at horses ailments, and 5 others. There are also smaller versions of extant works that either weren’t in a condition to be printed or Goswamy couldn’t get permission to print.This is a lifetime’s work (and the list of people he thanks runs into two pages). Most of these folios aren’t signed, so Goswamy depends on style and topic. He’s helped here by Manaku’s love for dense narration. Manaku produced work after work looking at tiny shifts in action in small cantos from the Ramayan or Gita Govinda – almost as if he doesn’t want the viewer to lose any part of the action. When you look at so many pages from a single folio, it’s easy to see there are similar stylistic devices in different series.But the most underrated series that Goswamy locates is the Ashwa-shastra. Even though these drawings are produced on coarse paper, there’s a story that Raja Govardhan Chand, who occupied the throne in 1741 – a period that would have overlapped with Manaku, was so fond of a horse that he fought a war with the Governor of Punjab, Adina Beg Khan, over it. Certainly, Manaku’s gorgeous paintings of horses in the Bhagavat Purana and Ashwa-shastra show that his deep study extended beyond the religious.

A fascinating book as it brings to life a whole world of Indian princes and their favoured artists suggesting the close bond between them. We can view so much art from the past and forget the background that created these masterpieces. Nainsukh might easily have been dismissed as a minor painter with a few outstanding pictures to his name. This book shows just how great an artist he was and clarifies why he was the inspiration behind one of the greatest art movements in Indian and World Painting, namely the Guler/Kangra school.