Indian Art and Its Vibrant History
From early petroglyphs to a flourishing contemporary art scene, India’s vibrant artistic legacy is the result of a variety of cultural influences. The diversity of art from this area—which includes anything created in the historical regions of modern-day India, Bangladesh, and areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan—is reflected in vivid, distinct, and enchanting styles that represent many different civilizations.
Because some of the world’s major religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam either began or flourished in India, much of Indian art is based in religious or political subject matter. Here, we uncover the history of Indian folk paintings, architecture, and sculpture, and explain how each evolved from the sociopolitical influences reflective of the period from which they originated.
A Brief History of Indian Art
Archaeologists discovered evidence of prehistoric rock art—carvings or drawings on cave rocks—in this area dating back at least 290,000 years. The oldest examples are the Bhimbetka petroglyphs found in central India. These consist of cupules, which are non-utilitarian hemispherical cup-shaped depressions that are hammered out of the rock surface. This type of rock art was the primary form of cave painting throughout the Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Neolithic periods, often depicting animal and human forms.
The earliest known Indian art sculptures were produced by the Indus Valley Civilization between 2,500 B.C. and 1,800 B.C. They created small terracotta and bronze figures that also represented humans and animals such as cows and monkeys. In the 6th century B.C., the rise of Buddhism paved way for religious-themed art, often in the form of stone and bronze sculptures. During this time, religious artists also experimented with the creation of vast temples carved in stone and decorated with Greek-influenced columns.
Sculpture was a common practice among Indian Buddhists and Hindus. Hinduism continued to be a main focus of Indian art for centuries, as sculptures of deities like Shiva were commonly produced. By the 16th century, Islam gained importance under the Mughal Empire and art production grew under Islamic rulers. During this time, the arts prospered and in 1631 construction began on the Taj Mahal.
British involvement in India began in the 18th century, during which time they established art schools to promote European styles. As a result, local art styles merged with foreign influences and traditional art forms were often romanticized or exaggerated to appeal to European buyers. In 1947, India gained independence from the British empire which pushed local artists to search for a new style. Contemporary Indian art incorporates traditional elements and influences from the rich history of the country.
Contents
1. Indian Painting
2. Architecture
3. Sculpture
4. Indian Music
5. Indian Dance
6. Indian Theatre
7. Martial arts
8. Indian Language
Indian Painting
Folk Painting of Indian Art
Pattachitra
Patachitra or Pattachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-based scroll painting, based in the eastern Indian states of Odisha, West Bengal and parts of Bangladesh. Patachitra artform is known for its intricate details as well as mythological narratives and folktales inscribed in it. Pattachitra is one of the ancient artworks of Odisha, originally created for ritual use and as souvenirs for pilgrims to Puri, as well as other temples in Odisha. Patachitras are a component of an ancient Bengali narrative art, originally serving as a visual device during the performance of a song. There were no pencil and vharcoal is used, rather brush is used to draw the out lines. The theme of these painting are inspired from Jagannath and Vaishnava cult.
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File:Extrait de Chandi Mangal de Hazra Chitrakar
Theme and Style
The theme of Odia painting centres round the Jagannath and the Vaishnava sect. Since beginning of Pattachitra culture, Lord Jagannath who was an incarnation of Lord Krishna has been the major source of inspiration. The subject matter of Patta Chitra is mostly mythological, religious stories and folk lore. Themes are chiefly on Lord Jagannath and Radha-Krishna, different "Vesas" of Shri Jagannath, Balabhadra and Subhadra, temple activities, the ten incarnations of Vishnu basing on the 'Gita Govinda' of Jayadev, Kama Kujara Navagunjara, Ramayana, Mahabharata. The individual paintings of gods and goddesses are also being painted.
The Pattachitra style are mix of both folk and classical elements but leanings more towards folk forms. The dress style has Mughal influences. All of the poses have been confined to a few well-defined postures. These are not free from monotonous repetitions, though at times this is necessary to accentuate the narrative character of the style. The lines are bold and clean and angular and sharp. Generally, there are no landscapes, perspectives, and distant views. All the incidents are seen in close juxtaposition. The background on which the figures are represented, is delineated with decorations of flowers and foliages and is mostly painted in red colour. All the paintings are given decorative borders. The whole painting is conceived in the form of a design on a given canvas.
The themes may be classified into following categories
- Jagannath paintings
- Vaishnav Paintings
a)Bhagabat paintings b)Ramayana paintings
- Saiva paintings
- Shakta paintings
- Paintings as legends
- Ragachitras
- Bandhachitra
- Yamapati and yatripatas – (sketches of puri temple) Ganjapa playing card paintings and other socials themes on paintings.
- Navagunjara
Technique
Traditionally the painters are known as chitrakars. A patta painter's home with all the members of family is his studio. Woman members prepare the glue, the canvas and apply colours what we call the fill-in, and give the final lacquer coating. The master hand, mostly the male member, draws the initial line and gives the final finishing. Patta paintings are done on small strips of cotton cloth. The canvas is prepared by coating the clothing with a mixture of chalk and gum made from tamarind seeds. Then it is rubbed by taking the help of two different stones and then the cloth is dried. The mixture of gum and chalk gives the cloth's surface a leathery finish on which the artists paint with vegetable, earth and stone colours.
The painters do not use pencil or charcoal for the preliminary drawings. They are so expert in the line that they simply draw directly with the brush either in light red or yellow. Then the colours are filled in. The final lines are drawn and the patta is given a lacquer coating to protect it from weather, thus making the painting glossy. This process of glazing or varnishing is quite interesting. The painting is held over a fireplace so that the back of the painting is exposed to heat. On the surface of the painting fine lacquer is applied.
Colour
In the 16th century, with the emergence of Bhakti movement the paintings of Radha and Krishna were painted in vibrant shades of orange, red and yellow. There are typical scenes and figures like Krishna, Gopis, elephants, trees and other creatures are seen in these paintings. Krishna is always painted in blue and Gopis in light pink, purple or brown colours.
The painters use vegetable and mineral colours without going for factory-made poster colours. They prepare their own colours.White colour is made from the conch-shells by powdering, boiling and filtering in a very hazardous process. It requires a lot of patience. But this process gives brilliance and premanence to the hue. 'Hingula', a mineral colour, is used for red. 'Haritala', king of stone ingredients for yellow, 'Ramaraja' a sort of indigo for blue are being used. Pure lamp-black or black prepared from the burning of coconut shells are used. There was no blue either cobalt or ultramarine in the earlier colour schemes. The colours used in the Patta paintings are primarily bright colours, limited to red, yellow, indigo, black and white. The brushes that are used by these 'Chitrakaras' are also indigenous and are made of hair of domestic animals. A bunch of hair tied to the end of a bamboo stick make the brush.
Palm leaf Pattachitra
Palm leaf pattachitra which is in Oriya language known as Tala Pattachitra drawn on palm leaf. First of all palm leaves are left for becoming hard after being taken from the tree. Then these are sewn together to form like a canvas. The images are traced by using black or white ink to fill grooves etched on rows of equal-sized panels of palm leaf that are sewn together. These panels can also be easily folded like a fan and packed in a compact pile for better conservation. Often palm-leaf illustrations are more elaborated, obtaining by superimposing layers that are glued together for most of the surface, but in some areas can open like small windows to reveal a second image under the first layer.