Indian Paintings

Indian paintings
The story of Indian paintings began with the art of the primitive man on rocks and caves. To this day, it continues to exist at many places like HOSHANGABAD, MIRZAPUR and BUMBETKA. Later, the remains of a well-developed urban civilization in India were found which was the Indus Valley Civilization which lasted from 2000 BC to 1500 BC. Most of its remains lay buried for some thousand years under the earth until these were discovered less than a hundred years ago. Among these remains were beautiful samples of colourfully painted pottery. From those samples, it can be said that the Indus Valley people must have had a rich tradition of painting.

As in architecture, the cultural heritage of India in the field of painting is very rich. The first and the most creative period of the art of painting extends from the first to the seventh centuries of the Christian era. Of this the richest heritage is that of the Ajanta Paintings. Many murals which once decorated the walls of the Ajanta caves have disappeared due to neglect and the ravages of time. 

In northern India, the frescoes at Bagh are the best survivals, most of the others having been lost to us. The tradition of painting continued for some time other parts of India, e.g. at Badami, Kanchi and Ellora. It later spread to Sri Lanka where the beautiful frescoes at Sigriya seem to be directly related to the traditions of Ajanta. 

Gradually the art of wall painting died, though the art of book-illumination continued, particularly in Jain texts. 

The next great era in the art of painting was ushered in by the Mughals. The Mughals brought with them the traditions of Persian painting. Humayun brought with him to India two pupils of the great painter Behzad. They came into contact with their counterparts in India and under Akbar the synthesis of the two styles was encouraged. He gathered together a number of painters from Persia, Kashmir and Gujarat. The Ain-I-Akbari mentions a number of artists – Abdus Samad, Mir Saiyid Ali, Miskin, Daswan, Mukand and many others. They illustrated manuscripts like the Dastan-I-Amir Hamza and Babar Nama. Individual pieces were also painted. By the end of Akbar’s reign, an independent Mughal style of painting had been developed. 

Jahangir himself was a great connoisseur and patron of painting. Under him the Mughal school of painting was fully developed and made remarkable progress. The painting was no longer confined to book-illumination. Portrait painting and depiction of subjects drawn from life and nature became popular. Some of the finest painters in this period were Nadir, Murad, Bishan Das, Manohar, Govardhan, Mansur and Farrukh Beg. Writing about his own knowledge of painting in his autobiography, Jahangir says that he could distinguish between the work of each noted painter even if a painting was the product of joint work. The competence and skill of the Indian artists are evident from the incident which Sir Thomas Roe, who came to the court of Jahangir, mentions. The artists of Jahangir’s court made several copies of a painting which Roe had presented to the emperor on the same day. The copies were so perfect that Roe found it difficult to spot the original.

Thus in the course of a few decades, fine works of painting were created. The development continued under Shah Jahan. Dara Shikoh, son of Shah Jahan, was a great patron of painting. With Aurangzeb, the art declined in the Mughal courts. 

With the withdrawal of court patronage many artists went to different parts of the country and influenced the development of new schools of painting. Two of the most important schools of painting that thus emerged were the Rajasthani and Pahari schools. The subjects of the paintings of these schools were drawn from the epics, myths and legends and love themes.