Key Points

The Chitrasutra, a chapter in the fifth-century Vishnudharmottara Purana, is a foundational text for Indian art, especially painting. It details canons of image making, techniques, tools, and materials.

The Chitrasutra outlines six essential principles of painting: roopbheda (appearance), pramana (proportion), bhava (expression), lavanya yojana (aesthetics), sadrishya (resemblance), and varnikabhanga (use of brush and colours).

Manuscript illustrations are pictorial versions of poetic verses from epics and other texts. The corresponding text was often handwritten in a demarcated space on the painting or on its reverse.

Paintings from the medieval period are often called miniature paintings due to their small size. They were designed to be held and viewed up close, not hung on walls like murals.

The colophon page was the most important folio in a manuscript set, containing details like the patron's name, artist, date, and place of completion. Many have been lost over time, making historical attribution difficult.

This school thrived in Gujarat, southern Rajasthan, and western Central India. It was primarily patronized by wealthy merchants, traders, and local chieftains, especially from the Jain community.

The part of the Western Indian School focused on Jain themes is known as the Jain School. Its growth was encouraged by 'shaastradaan', the meritorious act of donating illustrated manuscripts to monastery libraries called 'bhandars'.

The most widely illustrated Jain text was the Kalpasutra, which details the lives of the 24 Tirthankaras. Other important texts include the Kalakacharyakatha and the Sangrahini Sutra.

Early Jain paintings were done on treated palm leaves, with the earliest surviving examples dating to the eleventh century. Paper was introduced and became common in the fourteenth century.

Jain paintings are known for their bright colours, thin wiry lines, and the depiction of a 'further eye' to show the three-dimensional nature of the face. They often divided space into sections for different incidents.

In the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, a parallel indigenous style of painting existed, illustrating secular and religious Hindu and Jain themes like the Chaurpanchashika and Bhagvata Purana.

This was a hybrid style that emerged from the mixing of Persian elements with the indigenous Indian style in courts like Malwa and Gujarat. It featured a distinct color palette and decorative details.

The Nimatnama, or 'Book of Delicacies', is the most famous example of the Sultanate School. It was painted in Mandu during the reign of Nasir Shah Khalji (1500-1510 CE) and is a book of recipes.

The Pala School represents the last great phase of Buddhist art in India, flourishing in eastern India during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The art was created in Buddhist monasteries like Nalanda and Vikramsila.

Pala paintings are characterized by their flowing, sinuous lines and use of subdued colors, differing from the terse lines of Jain paintings. The style is often compared to the murals at Ajanta.

Pala art spread to Nepal, Tibet, Sri Lanka, and Java through pilgrims and students. The school ended in the early thirteenth century when Muslim invaders destroyed the monasteries.