Name: The Tradition of Miniature Painting
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 5 min 13 s
Description: Miniature paintings became popular during the Mughal Empire, but as the empire declined, artists found new regions in which they could express their art.

Question

Who were the major patrons of Kathak?

Accepted Answer

The major patrons of Kathak can be described as follows:

The Mughals were Kathak's strongest patrons. Kathak is originated from Katha, a word for stories in Sanskrit and other languages, and was once a caste of storytellers in north Indian temples who enriched their presentations with gestures and singing.

With the development of the bhakti movement in the fifteenth and sixteenth century, Kathak began to evolve into a separate kind of dance. Radha-Krishna legends were portrayed in rasa Lila folk plays, which merged traditional dance with the basic gestures of kathak storytellers.

Kathak was first performed in the court of the Mughal emperors and their nobles, where it evolved its current characteristics and became a distinct type of dance. It then split into two traditions, or gharanas, one in the Rajasthani courts (Jaipur) and the other in Lucknow. It developed into an important art form under the patronage of Wajid Ali Shah, the last Nawab of Awadh.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Kathak, like many other cultural activities, was disliked by most British officials. It did, however, survive and continue to be performed by courtesans, and after independence, it was recognised as one of six “classical” forms of dance in the country.

Who were the major patrons of Kathak?

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