Indian Paintings


Introduction: 

From the ancients times, the Indian paintings or Traditional paintings of India had become a specialist of art in both national and international. Famous Indian paintings and ancient Indian paintings from the centuries are still alive. The Theme of the Indian traditional paintings have described the love of nature, scriptures, battles, festivals, occasions, culture, Hindu mythology, god and goddess and etc.,

Overview:

  • Cave Painting.
  • Madhubani Painting.
  • Miniature Painting.
  • Mughal Painting.
  • Mysore Painting.
  • Pahari Painting.
  • Tanjore Painting.
  • Rajput Painting.

Cave Painting:

Cave Painting is one of the ancient art or painting of the Indian traditional paintings. It was started in the pre-historic ages. This will show the love of nature. As we all know the Ajantha and Elora, Bhimbetka, and Elephanta will show the Cave painting. The paintings are made on the walls and ceilings of the caves with the colors derived from the locally available minerals, and white color is derived from the lime. The main concept of these paintings is about the social-cultural life of mankind and hunting the animals and about nature.

The cave paintings are still preserved and maintained in India.

Madhubani Painting/Mithila Painting:

This painting had come from the village called Mithila, in the Bihar state of India. This painting is nearly 2500 years old. From the first, the people of Maithili started to paint their own thoughts on the walls of their homes and they developed to paint about the folk culture and slowly entered into the festivals and specials events and grab a special place in both national and international.

They also used the natural colors, charcoal, and natural minerals extracted from rocks.

Miniature Paintings:

These paintings are small, colorful, and with detailed images. The theme of these paintings is about the Indian tunes, and ragas, the dancing images of musical parties. Mostly they paint on the palm leaves later on cloth with the side profile. Miniature painting developed in the 8th to 12th centuries.

These paintings are from the period of the Delhi Sultanates and Mughals. Paintings show the culture at that time, and they brought the concept of Gita Govinda and love.

Mughal Paintings:

Mughal Paintings are in 16th to 19th centuries A.D. This art is not a new style itself. These arts are already there in India since the 1st Century. It is a combination of Indian(Rajasthani) person and Islamic styles. These paintings show the wildlife, hunting scenes Battle scenes, victories, and celebrations.

Mughals love the paintings very much, the largest collections of Mughal paintings are in the London museum. These paintings are made during the period of Mughal Emperors.

Mysore Painting:

This is a classical South Indian painting, It is in the Mysore city of Karnataka. These paintings show the god and goddesses in the Hindu sculptures. It is similar to Tanjore paintings. These paintings are becoming very popular in the tradition of Indian history. These paintings are improved in wodeyar dynasty. The paintings are made on the temples and places with mythological scenes.

Most of the paintings are destroyed due to the war between the tipu sultan, Hyder Ali with the British people.

The Lord Narasimha Swamy temple in Seebi had many beautiful wall paintings in the Mysore and Tanjore style.

The colors used in the paintings are Red, Green, and Blue by using vegetables and flowers. Mysore paintings invoke feelings of devotion and give respect.

Pahari Paintings:

These paintings are from Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. These paintings are from the period of the 17th -19th Century in the form of miniature forms. Pahari paintings are in unique style in coloring and composition. The series of Gita Govinda is painted in 1730 A.D. with strong colors. We can see Lord Krishna plays with village women named as gopika's, friends, and with cows.

These paintings done in Pahari will represent the Bhagavata of Indian Scripture series. This art reached Zenith during the time of Jahangir's. The features are with monochrome background, and large eyes, with diamond ornaments, will be observed in these paintings.

This is beautiful Indian art.

Tanjore Painting:

Tanjore painting is a classical painting which is from the Tanjavur of Tamil Nadu and also known as Palagai Padam. It means the picture on the wooden plank. These are from the 16th Century. The paintings are about Indian dance, art, music.

Mainly the Paintings are done on the Indian sculptures of gods and goddesses. The rich colors are used in the Tanjavur painting. The paintings are made on wooden planks and then on cloth.

The themes of Tanjore paintings illustrates Lord Krishna, Lord Rama and other gods, and goddess from the Hindu sculptures.

Rajput Paintings:

Rajput paintings are called Rajasthan paintings. These paintings are in between the 16th and 17th Century A.D. The Rajput paintings are mainly shown in the Ramayana and Mahabharata. Hindu Puranas and famous scriptures are painted with different colors made with minerals, plants, stones, and gold and silver. Rajput paintings are used to tell the story to the people of the culture, architecture, and mythological stories.

These paintings are also drawn on the walls of the temples, walls of the palaces. The Rajput paintings are divided into two parts, Rajasthani and Pahari. There are two schools for these paintings namely the Rajasthani school of paintings and Pahari Paintings.

As in general the colors are were extracted from the natural resources as we described above.

So these are the Indian paintings since the ancient times of India.


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