a Patna Qalam painting depicting two artisans handcrafting a hookah, an oriental tobacco pipe. The Patna Qalam School of painting was developed in the City of Patna, Bihar in the 18th and 19th Century CE. What is most interesting about this school of painting is that it was the first independent school of painting that had turned the lens on the life and times of the common man. This seems even more revolutionary of an idea when we understand that Patna Qalam style of painting originated as an off-shoot of the Mughal Miniatures. The subject matter of the Mughal miniatures was the lives of the Mughal emperors or nobility. In some cases, they were scenes from poems, tales and legends, but none of them ever focused on the trials and tribulations of the common folk. Under Aurangzeb’s rule, the arts and the artisans faced much persecution and they fled to different parts of the country. One such group settled in Murshidabad under the patronage of the Nawab of Bengal and it was this patronage which gave birth to the Patna Qalam style. This beautiful form, which dealt with a humble subject matter, was done on equally common mediums that were readily available to the artisan such as mica, paper, and ivory discs worn as a brooch.
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