Pahari Paintings: Art and Stories at the Cleveland Museum of Art

 

Krishna celebrates Holi
c. 1770
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.104
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

 
 

Pahari Paintings

Art and Stories

January 18, 2026 — August 23, 2026

 

In the far north of India, the Himalayan mountain ranges rise abruptly from the Punjab plains to form the alpine region known as Pahari, defined by a shared language (Pahari) and script (Takri). From the 1600s to 1900s, the Hindu nobility of the Pahari kingdoms commissioned paintings for their royal collections. Known as “Pahari paintings,” they were made by painters who were born into hereditary artist communities located in villages throughout the region. By the end of the 1900s, many descendants of royal families dispersed them, and they became some of the most popular and widely collected genres of Indian painting in the world.

This installation celebrates the CMA’s 2018 acquisition and 2026 publication of the Pahari paintings from the renowned Catherine Glynn Benkaim and Ralph Benkaim Collection. It includes portraits of key patrons, a large-scale historical painting on cloth, and paintings of religious and poetic subjects. A special feature on paintings from a mystical romance, the Madhavanala-Kamakandala, reveals the complex dynamic between visual and literary arts, the sacred and the secular, Hindu and Muslim, local and mainstream. Two double-sided embroideries, known as rumal, showcase textile art made by Pahari women in collaboration with painters who were predominantly men. These 23 works of art summarize the scope of Pahari painting.

 
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Exhibition Preview

 

Feast where Vishnu decides he will incarnate as King Dasharatha’s sons, from Chapters 14–15 of the "Bala Kanda" (Book of Childhood) of a Ramayana (Rama’s Journey)
c. 1810
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.121
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

King Vikrama summons Madhava, folio 15 from a Madhavanala-Kamakandala
c. 1720
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.92
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Madhava plays his vina before five women drawing water from a well, folio 2 from a Madhavanala-Kamakandala
c. 1720
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.93
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Madhava faces a man holding a scale, folio 1 from a Madhavanala-Kamakandala
c. 1720
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.95
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Posthumous portrait of Raja Chhatar Singh of Chamba smoking a hookah with his brother and son
c. 1700
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and ink on paper
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
1960.47
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Heroine with attendant and a pair of deer
c. 1710–20
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.108
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Posthumous portrait of Raja Chhatar Singh of Chamba smoking a hookah
c. 1700
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and ink on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
2018.109
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Sindhu (Saindhava) Ragaputra of Shri Raga, from a Ragamala
c. 1680–90
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
2018.90
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Raja Sansar Chand attacking Kangra Fort
after 1782
Northern India, Pahari kingdom of Kangra
Gum tempera, ink, and gold on cotton cloth
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.120
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Raja Dilip Singh of Guler on a dais
c. 1707
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
1960.49
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Taking of the toll, Dana-Lila
c. 1760
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.86
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Krishna and Balarama touching the feet of Vasudeva and Devaki, from the “Vertical” Bhagavata Purana
c. 1700–1725
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.85
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

A group of women in ecstasy before Madhava, folio 4 from a Madhavanala-Kamakandala
c. 1720
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.91
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Descent of the Ganges
c. 1700–1710
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.111
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Rumal with Rama and Krishna scenes
1700s
Northern India, Pahari Kingdom of Chamba
Silk and silver wire on cotton; embroidery
Gift of William E. Ward in memory of his wife, Evelyn Svec Ward 
1996.349
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Krishna celebrates Holi
c. 1770
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera, gold, and silver on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.104
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Adoration of young Krishna
c. 1720–25
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund 
2018.97
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

Goddess standing on a mountaintop
c. 1720
Attributed to Master of the court of Mandi (Indian)
Northern India, Pahari kingdoms
Gum tempera and gold on paper
Purchase and partial gift from the Catherine and Ralph Benkaim Collection; Severance and Greta Millikin Purchase Fund
2018.98
© The Cleveland Museum of Art

 
News 16Editorial TeamArt of the Ancestors, Steven G. Alpert, Asian Art, Island Southeast Asian Art, Oceanic Art, Asiatica, Ethnographica, Ethnographic Art, Art Collection, Fine Art, Primitive Art, Indonesian Art, Tribal Art, Eyes of the Ancestors, Dr. Reimar Schefold