'Patna Kalam' is a:

Patna Kalam, also called the Patna School of Painting or Patna Qalam, is a style of miniature painting that flourished in Patna (Bihar) and nearby areas between the mid-18th and early 20th centuries. "Kalam" (qalam) means pen or brush, and is used to mean a "style" of painting.

Origin:

After the decline of the Mughal empire in the 18th century, many painters from the Mughal court in Delhi moved to other places in search of patrons. A group of them settled in Murshidabad, and when the Nawabs there declined, they moved to Patna, which was then an important trading centre with a growing class of British officials and wealthy local merchants.

Features of Patna Kalam:

It is often described as the first independent painting style that dealt mainly with the daily life of ordinary people, rather than royalty or religion. Paintings show street vendors, craftsmen, festivals, market scenes, servants, and people at work.

It is regarded as a form of "Company painting", because many paintings were made for officials of the East India Company as souvenirs of Indian life.

Paintings usually have no background landscape and focus on the figures.

Artists often painted directly with the brush without first making a pencil sketch, a technique called "kajli seahi".

Paintings were made on paper, ivory, glass and mica.

Famous artists include Sewak Ram, Hulas Lal, Jairam Das, Shiva Lal and Ishwari Prasad Verma, who is regarded as the last great painter of the Patna school. The Patna Museum has a large collection.

Bihar's other famous painting tradition is Madhubani (Mithila) painting.

Why not the other options?

• ✗Calligraphy is decorative handwriting.
• ✗Good to know
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• ✗Bihar's textiles include Bhagalpur silk (tussar).