The Manuscript Painting TraditionClass 12 Fine Arts Notes

The Manuscript Painting Tradition

The foundation of Indian painting lies in ancient texts that established a set of rules or canons for artists. These principles, followed for centuries, created a common artistic language across different regions and time periods.

The most important sourcebook is a chapter called Chitrasutra from a fifth-century text, the Vishnudharmottara Purana. This chapter details the art of making images, known as pratima lakshana. It provides a complete guide for painters, covering everything from techniques, tools, and materials to understanding perspective and creating three-dimensional figures.

The Chitrasutra outlines six key principles or "limbs" of painting:

• Roopbheda: The knowledge of looks and appearances.
• Pramana: Correct measurements, proportion, and structure.
• Bhava: The depiction of expressions and emotions.
• Lavanya yojana: The creation of an aesthetic composition.
• Sadrishya: Achieving resemblance or likeness.
• Varnikabhanga: The skillful use of the brush and colours.

These canons became the basis for all major styles and schools of painting in India.

Miniature Paintings and Manuscript Illustrations

During the medieval period, a popular form of painting emerged known as miniature paintings. The name comes from their relatively small size, which meant they were designed to be held in hand and viewed up close. This is in sharp contrast to mural paintings, which were large artworks painted directly onto the walls of mansions.

A large number of these miniatures are specifically manuscript illustrations. They served as visual translations of poetic verses from important texts like the Ramayana, Bhagavata Purana, Mahabharata, and Gita Govinda.

Key features of manuscript illustrations:

• Thematic Sets: They were created as a series of loose paintings, called folios, with each set illustrating one complete text.
• Integrated Text: The corresponding verse was often handwritten in a special box-like space at the top of the painting or on its back.
• Storage: Each set was wrapped in cloth and stored as a bundle in the library of the patron, usually a king or a wealthy individual.

The Importance of the Colophon Page

The most crucial folio in any manuscript set was the colophon page. This page acted like the credits section of a modern book or film. It contained vital information such as:

• The name of the patron who commissioned the work.
• The name of the artist or scribe.
• The date and place of completion.

Challenges in Reconstructing Art History

Reconstructing the history of these paintings is a difficult task for scholars.

• Missing Information: Many colophon pages have been lost over time due to damage from mishandling, fire, or humidity. This forces scholars to guess the origin of a painting based on its style.
• Dispersal of Artworks: Being portable and valuable, paintings were often given as dowry gifts, exchanged between kings, or carried to distant lands by pilgrims, traders, and monks. As a result, a single set of paintings can be scattered across various museums and private collections worldwide.
• Gaps in the Timeline: There are long periods with very few dated artworks, leaving historians to speculate about the artistic activities of those times.

Because of these challenges, scholars often assign a hypothetical timeframe to undated paintings based on stylistic features and other circumstantial evidence.

Western Indian School of Painting

This school of painting flourished mainly in western India, with Gujarat as its primary center, along with southern Rajasthan and western Central India. This region was a hub of trade, which brought great wealth and prosperity to merchants, traders, and local chiefs, who became powerful patrons of the arts.

The Jain School of Painting

The merchant class in western India was largely represented by the Jain community. As a result, they became major patrons of art related to Jainism. This specific tradition within the Western Indian School is known as the Jain School of Painting.

Patronage was further encouraged by the concept of shaastradaan, or the donation of books. Donating illustrated manuscripts to monastery libraries, called bhandars, was considered an act of great charity and righteousness.

Commonly Illustrated Jain Texts:

• Kalpasutra: This is the most widely illustrated Jain text. It narrates the biographies of the 24 Tirthankaras (great spiritual teachers), focusing on five key life events: conception, birth, renunciation, enlightenment, and salvation.
• Kalakacharyakatha: An adventurous tale about the monk Acharya Kalaka on a mission to rescue his sister from an evil king.
• Sangrahini Sutra: A twelfth-century text on cosmology, explaining the structure of the universe.
• Uttaradhyana Sutra: Contains the teachings of Mahavir on the code of conduct for monks.

Format and Style of Jain Paintings

• Materials: Early paintings (dating back to the eleventh century) were done on treated palm leaves. Paper was introduced later, in the fourteenth century.
• Assembly: The folios were held together by a string passed through a small hole in the center and protected by decorated wooden covers called patlis.
• Stylistic Features:
  • Colors: A strong preference for bright, bold colours.
  • Lines: Compositions are dominated by thin, wiry lines.
  • Figures: An attempt at three-dimensionality is made by adding a "further eye" to faces in profile.
  • Details: Great interest in depicting textile patterns and local cultural elements like furniture and costumes.
  • Influences: Architectural details like Sultanate domes and pointed arches show the political influence of the time.
  • Materials: Lavish use of gold and lapis lazuli, indicating the wealth of the patrons.
  • Landscape: Natural landscapes are usually suggestive rather than detailed.

The period from about 1350-1450 is considered the most creative phase for Jain paintings, where artists began including more decorative elements like figures in dance poses and musicians in the margins.

The Indigenous and Sultanate Styles

Alongside the Jain tradition, a parallel "indigenous style" of painting existed among feudal lords and wealthy citizens. This style, sometimes called pre-Mughal or pre-Rajasthani, focused on illustrating Hindu and other secular texts like the Mahapurana and Chaurpanchashika. It developed its own distinct features, such as depicting transparent fabrics and formalised ways of showing water, flora, and fauna, which later influenced Rajasthani painting.

Furthermore, with the rise of Sultanate rule in northern, eastern, and western India, a new hybrid style emerged, known as the Sultanate School of Painting. This was not a formal school but a style that blended:

• Indigenous features: The figure types and compositions of the local style.
• Persian elements: The colour palette, simplified landscapes, and facial features from Persian, Turkic, and Afghan art.

A prime example of this style is the Nimatnama (Book of Delicacies), a book of recipes painted in Mandu during the reign of Nasir Shah Khalji (1500-1510 CE).

Pala School of Painting

Developing in eastern India, the Pala School of Painting represents the earliest examples of manuscript illustration in India, alongside the Jain tradition. Flourishing during the Pala period (750 CE to the mid-twelfth century), this era is considered the last great phase of Buddhist art in the country.

Great monasteries like Nalanda and Vikramsila were major centers of Buddhist learning and art. Here, numerous manuscripts on palm leaves were illustrated with Buddhist themes, especially images of Vajrayana Buddhist deities.

Style and Influence

The Pala style is distinctly different from the Jain school.

• Lines: Characterized by a flowing, sinuous line, giving figures a graceful and soft appearance.
• Colors: Uses subdued colour tones, in contrast to the bright colours of the Western Indian School.
• Artistic Unity: The style of painting closely resembles the sculptural style found in Pala monasteries, showing a shared artistic language.

Students and pilgrims from all over South East Asia came to study at Nalanda and Vikramsila. They took back examples of Pala art, such as illustrated manuscripts and bronze statues, which led to the dispersal of the Pala style to Nepal, Tibet, Burma, Sri Lanka, and Java.

A famous example of this school is the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita, or "Perfection of Wisdom," painted at Nalanda during the reign of King Ramapala in the late eleventh century.

The Pala art tradition came to an end in the first half of the thirteenth century when Muslim invaders attacked and destroyed the great monasteries, which were the heart of this artistic production.