Sikh art, also known as the Sikh School, is the artwork created by or associated with Sikhs. Sikh artwork exists in many forms, such as miniature, oil, and watercolour paintings, murals, and wood carvings.
Terminology
Naqqash
The word 'naqqash' is equivalent to the meaning of chitrakar, and means "decorator" or "illuminator" and refers to a painter or artist. 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. 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. 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.
History
Origin
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. 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. 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.
Sikh Empire and other states
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.