Indian Paintings and Schools: Murals to Folk Art

Indian painting is one of the oldest continuous art traditions in the world. It runs from the ochre figures on the rock shelters of Bhimbetka to the oil canvases of the twentieth century, and examiners pick from every stage of it. For an exam the subject divides into four blocks: the cave and mural paintings, the miniature schools of the Mughal, Rajasthani, Pahari and Deccan courts, the colonial and modern movements, and the folk and tribal styles that still carry the name of a state. Almost every question asks for a pair, so learn each style with its region, its patron and its best known work.

Cave and mural paintings

The earliest paintings in India are the prehistoric rock paintings of the Bhimbetka shelters in Madhya Pradesh, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, where hunting and dancing scenes were drawn in red and white mineral colours. Classical mural painting begins at Ajanta in Maharashtra, a group of rock cut caves on the Waghora river excavated between the second century BCE and the sixth century CE. The Ajanta paintings were made by the tempera method, mineral colour laid on a ground of mud, cow dung and rice husk plastered over the rock, and not by true fresco. The celebrated Bodhisattva Padmapani and Bodhisattva Vajrapani are in Cave 1, and Jataka stories cover the walls of Caves 9, 10, 16 and 17. Ellora in the same state carries Buddhist, Hindu and Jain painting, chiefly in the Kailasa temple. The Bagh caves of Madhya Pradesh are Buddhist and closest to Ajanta in style. Sittanavasal in Tamil Nadu is Jain and famous for its lotus tank ceiling. Badami in Karnataka preserves Chalukyan royal portraits, and Lepakshi in Andhra Pradesh carries Vijayanagara murals.

The miniature tradition

A miniature is a small, minutely detailed painting on palm leaf, paper or cloth, made to be held in the hand rather than fixed to a wall. The Pala school of Bengal and Bihar, painted on palm leaf Buddhist manuscripts in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, is the earliest Indian miniature style. The western Indian or Apabhramsa school of Gujarat and Rajasthan illustrated Jain texts such as the Kalpasutra and the Kalakacharya Katha, and is recognised by wiry outlines, flat red grounds and protruding fish shaped eyes.

Mughal painting, reign by reign

Mughal painting began under Humayun, who brought the Persian masters Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad to his court. Akbar organised the imperial atelier and had the Hamzanama, the Razmnama, a Persian version of the Mahabharata, the Akbarnama and the Tutinama illustrated; Basawan, Daswanth and Kesu Das worked for him. Jahangir is the peak of the school. He preferred single studies of birds, animals and flowers and closely observed portraits, and his artists included Ustad Mansur, titled Nadir-ul-Asr, who painted the Siberian crane and the turkey cock, Abul Hasan, titled Nadir-uz-Zaman, and Bishandas, praised for likeness. Under Shah Jahan the work turned formal and jewel like, with the Padshahnama as its record. Aurangzeb withdrew patronage, the painters scattered to the Rajput and Pahari courts, and the imperial school ended.

Rajasthani and Pahari schools

Rajasthani painting grew in the Rajput courts on themes of Krishna, the Ragamala, the Baramasa and the hunt. Mewar at Udaipur produced the Ragamala series of Sahibdin; Bundi is known for dense blue green vegetation and water; Kota for tiger and boar hunts; Kishangarh for the elongated, arched eyebrow female type of which Bani Thani, painted by Nihal Chand under Raja Savant Singh, is the model. Marwar, Bikaner, Amber and Jaipur and Alwar make up the rest. Pahari painting belongs to the hill states. Basohli is the boldest, with hot colour and beetle wing cases used for emeralds, and its Rasamanjari was painted by Devidasa. Guler is the transition, where Manaku and Nainsukh, sons of Pandit Seu, softened the line. Kangra under Raja Sansar Chand is the most lyrical, with the Gita Govinda and Bihari Satsai series. Chamba, Mandi, Garhwal and Kulu follow.

Deccan, Company and modern painting

Deccan painting flourished at Ahmadnagar, at Bijapur where the Nujum-ul-Ulum was made, at Golconda and later at Hyderabad. The Company school grew at Murshidabad, Patna, Benares, Delhi and Madras, where Indian painters worked in watercolour on European paper for British patrons; the Patna Kalam recorded ordinary trades and festivals. Oil painting and linear perspective came with the British art schools in the nineteenth century, and Raja Ravi Varma of Kerala joined them to Indian subjects in Shakuntala and Damayanti. In reaction the Bengal School, led by Abanindranath Tagore with the encouragement of E. B. Havell, revived the wash technique and Indian themes; Bharat Mata of 1905 is its emblem, and Nandalal Bose, who decorated the pages of the Constitution of India, was its most influential pupil. Amrita Sher-Gil brought modern European form to Indian village subjects, Jamini Roy drew on Kalighat and folk line, and the Progressive Artists Group, formed at Bombay in 1947 by F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, K. H. Ara, S. K. Bakre and H. A. Gade, turned Indian art towards modernism.

Folk and tribal paintings

These are the rows most often asked, because each belongs to one state.

Terms worth remembering

• Tempera: pigment bound with a glue or gum medium, the Ajanta method.
• Fresco: pigment applied on wet lime plaster, not the Ajanta technique.
• Ragamala: a set of paintings that give visual form to musical modes.
• Baramasa: the twelve months, each with its mood and lovers.
• Gesso: the raised white paste under the gold foil of a Tanjore painting.