Bundi and Kota
The Hāḍās took the Bundi country in the thirteenth century and ruled it as an independent kingdom and later as a Mughal vassal. Rao Ratan Singh's son Madho Singh was granted Kota as a separate state in 1631, and the two houses ran in parallel thereafter, both entering British protection in 1818 and acceding to India in 1949.
Hāḍā chiefs served the Mughals in high military commands, and their tombs and cenotaphs record deaths in campaigns from the Deccan to Afghanistan.
Painting
The Bundi school, from the seventeenth century, is among the finest of the Rajput traditions: dense, saturated colour, lush vegetation, and a distinctive treatment of night scenes and monsoon skies. Its rāgamālā sets and Rasikapriyā illustrations are its best-known work.
Kota developed from the same root into something recognisably its own, above all in its hunting scenes — tiger and boar hunts set in tangled forest, drawn with an observation of animal movement that is unmatched elsewhere in Indian painting.
The Chitrashala at Bundi palace, with its painted chambers, remains one of the most complete surviving ensembles of Rajput mural work.
Further reading
- Asher, Catherine B. India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press, 2006
- Blurton, T. Richard. Hindu Art. Harvard University Press, 1993
- Davis, Richard H. Lives of Indian Images. Princeton University Press, 1997
- Elgood, Heather. Hinduism and the Religious Arts. Cassell, 1999
- Michell, George. The Hindu Temple: An Introduction to Its Meaning and Forms. University of Chicago Press, 1988
See also
This entry was last revised on 1 August 2026.