The publisher of "Indian Painting in the Punjab Hills" and "Kangra Painting" was:

Question

Accepted Answer

The correct option is 2:
W. G. Archer (William George Archer) was a highly influential British art historian and civil servant who served as the Keeper of the Indian Section of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. He is definitively credited with authoring the two monumental and scholarly works cited in the question: "Indian Painting in the Punjab Hills" and "Kangra Painting," both of which were published in 1952. Archer's research was crucial in meticulously documenting the various miniature painting schools of the Punjab Hills, helping to distinguish them from one another, and establishing the pre-eminence of the Kangra style for its delicate lines and lyrical *Bhakti* themes. His dedicated study remains an essential foundation for any serious student of Pahari miniature painting.

The incorrect option is 1:
M. S. Randhawa was a distinguished Indian administrator, botanist, and art historian whose work is also foundational to the study of Pahari art. His own landmark publications, such as *Kangra Paintings on Love* and *Kangra Paintings of the Bhagvata Purana*, are indispensable contributions to the field, making him a major contemporary of Archer. While Randhawa’s efforts were pivotal in promoting and conserving these paintings within India, he is the author of these other core texts and is not the author of the two specific book titles named in the question. Both scholars significantly advanced the study of the art, but they wrote distinct works.

The incorrect option is 3:
Anand Coomaraswamy (Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy) was a revolutionary pioneer who essentially created the modern academic field of Indian art history in the early 20th century. He was the first scholar to systematically classify a vast body of Indian miniatures under the single, broad category of "Rajput Painting," distinguishing them from the Mughal style. His seminal work, *Rajput Painting* (1916), was the intellectual starting point for all subsequent specialised scholarship in the field. However, the specific, more specialised titles mentioned in the question, focusing on the Punjab Hills and Kangra as distinct regional schools, were authored by W. G. Archer decades later.

The incorrect option is 4:
Rai Krishna Das was a renowned Indian Hindi writer and an eminent art historian, widely respected for his comprehensive contributions to Indian cultural history and the popularisation of art studies in Hindi. He is perhaps best known for establishing the Bharat Kala Bhavan, an important art and archaeological museum at Banaras Hindu University. His scholarly focus was broad, encompassing Indian painting and sculpture generally, but he did not author the specialised English-language monographs on the precise subject of Pahari painting like "Indian Painting in the Punjab Hills" or "Kangra Painting" for which Archer is most famed.