style maintained its fierce intensity but there was now a gradual rounding
of faces and figures, leading to a slight softening of the former brusque
vigour. Devotion to Krishna does not seem to have bulked quite so largely
in the minds of later Basohli rulers, although the cult itself may well
have continued to exert a strong emotional appeal. In 1730, a Basohli
princess, the lady Manaku, commissioned a set of illustrations to the
_Gita Govinda_ and Krishna's power to enchant not only the male but also
the female mind was once again demonstrated.[102]

This series of illustrations is in some ways a turning point in Indian
painting for not only was it to serve as a model and inspiration to later
artists but its production brings to a close the most creative phase in
Basohli art. After 1730, painting continued to be practised there but no
longer with the same fervour. Basohli artists seem to have carried the
style to other states--to Guler, Jammu, Chamba, Kulu, Nurpur and
Bilaspur--but it is not until 1770 that the Krishna theme again comes into
prominence. In about this year, artists from Guler migrated to the distant
Garhwal, a large and straggling state at the far south of the Punjab
Hills, taking with them a style of exquisite naturalism which had
gradually reached maturity under the Guler ruler, Raja Govardhan
Singh.[103] During his reign, a family of Kashmiri Brahmans skilled in the
Mughal technique had joined his court and had there absorbed a new
romantic outlook. On at least three occasions they had illustrated scenes
from the _Bhagavata Purana_--Nanda celebrating Krishna's birth,[104]
Krishna rescuing Nanda from the python which had started to devour his
foot,[105] and finally the game of blind man's bluff[106]--but their chief
subject had been the tender enchantments of courtly love. Ladies were
portrayed longing for their lovers. The greatest emphasis was placed on
elegance of pose. Fierce distortions were gradually discarded and the whole
purpose of painting was to dwell on exquisite figures and to suggest a rapt