Patna Kalam revival: How Bihar is bringing back a lost art that captured everyday India

Depict watercolors on imported paper, fine brushwork on a light, bare background, and a sharp image of two men in cassocks working in a distillery. Or a woman, dressed in a bluish-yellow ghaghra and dupatta, dancing in a palace hall while musicians play. These artworks are part of the 18th century Indian painting tradition known as Patna Kalam.

It was a pre-photographic pictorial documentation of the everyday life of ordinary people, including greengrocers, blacksmiths and servants bringing food. Last December, Patna Kalam’s paintings were part of an exhibition at the Bihar Museum Biennale 2025, where he witnessed renewed interest. Which begs the question: why is art built to capture everyday life that now survives only behind glass?

Patna Kalam

Patna News | Video Credit: Sumit Saurabh, Almas Mohammad

The almost lost Patna Kalam, tucked away in storage in art colleges or confined to the private collections and archives of the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, has been re-introduced through an exhibition Patna Kalam: Ek Virasat held at the Patna Museum between December 2025 and February 2026 and a workshop for enthusiastic students. Art enthusiasts agree that if it were not for such interest from the state government, they would have had to travel outside India to pursue this artistic tradition. Besides the Patna Museum paintings, the exhibition featured works lent by Sanjay Kumar, a resident of Dhanbad and a descendant of the famous Patna painter Kalam Hulas Lal.

Art works of Patna Kalam in Bihar Museum. | Photo credit: Sumit Saurabh

The regional art style “used the technique of the Company School of Painting, with distinct characteristics inherent to the city of Patna – its people, culture and daily life,” says Bhairav Lal Das, chairman of the Patna chapter of INTACH (Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage). Mughal miniature detail intermingled with European naturalism. Art teacher Dinesh Kumar explains that Patna Kalam is devoid of any ornamentation; there is no play of light and shadow and no background. Imagine a purdah-nasheen woman peeking out from the red drapes of a stretcher, painted in gouache on mica (also called sunmica or abrak). Or a roadside baniya (grocer) sits weighing seeds or pulses.

Patna Kalam painting in Patna Museum. | Photo credit: Kavita Kanan Chandra

Pleased with the response and pleasantly surprised by the interest in the workshop, Bihar Museum Director General Anjani Kumar Singh now hopes to find good art trainers to pass on the technical skills and help create the contemporary Patna Kalam.

Patna Kalam Images on Patna Planet. | Photo credit: Sumit Saurabh

Patna Kalam image on Patna planet. | Photo credit: Sumit Saurabh

At Patna University’s College of Arts and Crafts, workshop participants were glued to Patna Kalam by administrative officer Chanchal Kumar, a reference photo book of paintings. Ironically, the original paintings remained locked in suitcases in the same rooms, inaccessible to the public. Last July, Aditya Jalan, the great-grandson of businessman and art connoisseur Dewan Bahadur Radha Krishna Jalan, opened Planet Patna, a private museum with a large collection of Company paintings, including the Patna Kalam.

“My great-grandfather was passionate about objects of historical importance, he even bought a Napoleon bed on a trip to Europe in 1935,” says Aditya, adding that his father Bal Manohar exchanged colonial-era stamps for Patna Kalam paintings. The museum at another location is open to all – with an entry fee of ₹100 – unlike the locked museum in his house, which is one of Patna’s iconic landmarks for art lovers, the century-old Quila House, better known as Jalan’s House.

Mildred Archer’s book ‘Patna Painting’.

Mildred Archer’s book ‘Company Paintings’.

Following the rise and fall of art

British art historian Mildred Archer, who traces the development of Patna Kalam, referred to the Mughal miniature paintings of the 16th–17th century. century in his 1948 book Patna Painting, in which he appreciates Radha Krishna Jalan’s contribution to the art form and his extensive private collection, which attracted important visitors and artists. In her book, Archer noted that with the collapse of the Mughal Empire, artists migrated from the Delhi court to the company’s settlements, from Lahore (Pakistan) to Murshidabad in West Bengal. This gave rise to the Anglo-Indian style of painting, known as Company art or bazaar art. Those in Murshidabad flourished under the patronage of the Nawab, but had to flee after the Battle of Plassey (1757). Artists came to the city of Patna in waves from 1750 and till 1760 planted the seeds of Patna Kalam. However, Ashok Kumar Sinha of the Bihar Museum says that the Patna Kalam predates the Company Paintings and existed even in 1720 in Patna.

The first major reference to the Patna Kalam appears in the 1943 monograph “The Patna School of Painting” by the British barrister and art collector PC Manuk and published in the Journal of the Bihar Research Society. While researching Mughal miniatures, he discovered paintings by Shiva Lal, whose grandson Ishwari Prasad Verma, an artist with several Patna Kalams to his credit, provided much information. Early painters (from 1790 onwards) included Sewak Ram and Hulas Lal, who pioneered the “firka” backdrops, a series of city pictures done in a naturalistic style. Cousins Shiva Lal and Shiva Dayal Lal led the tradition of the Patna workshop, creating paintings from 1815-40. With the advent of photography, high demand for Charles D’Oyly’s cheap lithographs in Europe, and declining patronage, Patna Kalam began to fade into obscurity.

Patna Kalam Vs. Tikuli

In April, the Bihar Museum exhibited the hidden treasures of Tikuli art. Like Patna Kalam, the 800-year-old Tikuli painting tradition also originated in Patna. Taking its name from the women’s tikuli or bindis, this traditional craft can be seen in home decor, coasters and trays and is known for its bright colours, fine details and the use of enamel paint on hard surfaces. Restored in the mid-20th century, Tikuli survives today, unlike Patna Kalam, which was lost after independence. “Patna Kalam is influenced by Mughal art, Rajasthani miniature painting and European style, while Tikuli art is influenced by Patna Kalam, Rajasthani miniature painting and Mithila painting,” says Tikuli artist Ashok Kumar Biswas, who was awarded the Padma Shri in 2024.

Sporadically, people have attempted to document the Patna Kalam. For example, Padma Shri awardee Shyam Sharma, former principal of Patn’s College of Arts and Crafts, is the author of Patna Kalam (2011, Lalit Kala Academy).

Sanjay Kumar, who hails from an illustrious lineage of Patna Kalam artists, says, “My grandfather Shyam Bihari Lal was devoted to Patna Kalam paintings till his end.” Several paintings of his ancestral family are in the Metropolitan and Victoria & Albert Museum, London and the Patna Museum.

Hope in contemporary stories?

Ashok Kumar Sinha, Deputy Director of the Bihar Museum, celebrates the Patna Kalam as Bihar’s heritage. He says, “We plan to dedicate a gallery to permanently exhibit Patna Kalam paintings. Just as we took Sita’s Vaidehi Sita exhibition to several Indian states and abroad in 2024, we can do something similar for Patna Kalam paintings, which many people don’t know about.”

Jitendra Mohan, a professor of fine arts who runs the Patna Kalam workshops, remembers a childhood that represented a legacy of art and wishes more time had been invested in it. “I live in the city of Patna, where Patna Kalam originates, and I grew up and saw it in my neighborhood, visiting the houses of renowned artists Mahadeo Lal and Ishwari Prasad Verma and museums like Jalan House,” says Mohan, who observed in workshops that “fresh artists” (young students) did better than, say, Madhubani folk artists in drawing and a measurement suited to Patam’s folk artists. images.

Patna Kalam painting by Santosh Kumar at INTACH Patna Chapter workshop. | Photo credit: Sumit Saurabh

Patna Kalam painting by Kajal Ojha at INTACH Patna Chapter workshop. | Photo credit: Sumit Saurabh

Apart from the Bihar Museum, INTACH has organized nine workshops on Patna Kalam since 2023 at various locations so that awareness is spreading. Student Anurag Kumar Verma wants to pursue fine arts and continue practicing Patna Kalam. Patna-based art and culture enthusiast Rachana Priyadarshini, who participated in the INTACH workshops, says, “From copying to incorporating contemporary elements to freehand drawing and observing architecture and people, we are on the right track.”

Contemporary Patna Kalam. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

Patna Kalam painting by Anurag Kumar Verma at INTACH Patna Chapter workshop. | Photo credit: Kavita Kanan Chandra

Patna Kalam painting by Anurag Kumar Verma at INTACH Patna Chapter workshop. | Photo credit: Sumit Saurabh

Patna is much more chaotic today; street paintings are not possible because they require calmness and space for fine art. Aditya Kumar Singh, an architect and part of the global art community Urban Sketchers in Patna, says it takes him half an hour to sketch a current building, while painting the Patna Kalam takes three days with full commitment. Singh doubts its sustenance, but Lal Das says INTACH will provide incentives for budding artists and build a good bank of Patna Kalam paintings through workshops to promote and sell them.

Patna Kalam design by Sunita Prakash. | Photo credit: Special arrangement

Meanwhile, block printing textile designer Sunita Prakash, through her company Bandhani, has been training women in painting traditional arts, including Patna Kalam, on fabric, holding exhibitions and selling pieces.

The writer is looking for positive stories all over the country.