The Master of the Garhwal Miniature In the misty, verdant landscapes of the Garhwal Himalayas, a singular artistic legacy was forged by Mola Ram, a man whose brushstrokes did more than merely capture light; they birthed an entire school of painting. Born in 1743 in Srinagar, within what is now Uttarakhand, Mola Ram was far more than a solitary painter. He was a polymath—a poet, a historian, and a diplomat—whose life was inextricably woven into the shifting political tides of the Garhwal Kingdom. Descended from a lineage of skilled artists who had once served the Mughal imperial court, he car…