UNIARA, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, CIRCA 1760

The small state of Uniara, which is situated between Bundi and Jaipur, gave rise to a short lived but accomplished school of painting in the 18^th century. In 1759 Sardar Singh was awarded the title Rao Raja Bahadur by the Mughal Emperor Shah ‘Alam, which likely precipitated greater artistic patronage and production as befitting this increase in status (J.P. Losty, ‘A Hitopadesha manuscript of 1761-62 from Uniara’ in Andrew Topsfield (ed.), Court Painting in Rajasthan, Mumbai, 2000, p.115). Whilst initially displaying greater parallels with Bundi painting, by the latter decades of the 18^th century the Uniara school gravitated more closely to the Jaipur style. A similar portrait of Sardar Singh is in a manuscript of the Hitopadesha in the British Library (OR.MS.13934, f.8lr) and another was illustrated in Simon Ray, Indian & Islamic Works of Art, Exhibition Catalogue, London, 2015, no.50, pp.122-23.