Thread by @paintphotograps

#Didyouknow, #India has a long tradition and heritage for indigenous art, apart from formal traditions? Some of these art practices are over 1000 years old. #Thread #IndianArtHistorty #ArtHistory #FolkArt

1. The handmade miniature painting of Assam.

Harshcharita (biography of King Harsha) written in Sanskrit by Banabhatta in the 7th century AD, informs us King of Kamrupa, ancient Assam, gifted Harshavardhan, King of Northern India, "volumes of fine writing with leaves made from aloe bark and the hue of ripe cucumber."

The paintings done as a part of a manuscript were made on sanchipat (a local writing material) or tulapat (paper pulp made from Tula leaves) with written descriptions, are collectively called the Assam school of miniature paintings also known as Satriyā School of Painting,

2. The handmade Bhil paintings of Madhya Pradesh. Bhil paintings are possibly one of the oldest art forms in India. The art form has been practiced for over two millennia in the country.

The beautiful images of Bhil paintings are painted with neem sticks and other twigs and natural dyes. The brilliant colors of the painting are made from pigments from turmeric, flour, vegetable dyes, and oil.

The paintings are composed of large shapes of characters filled with bright colors and overlaid with multi-hued dots. Somewhat the technique of Bhil painting resembles the pointillism technique used in Western art.

Well-known Bhil artist, Bhuri Bai, was awarded Padma Shri by the President of India in 2021 for her work in Bhil paintings. Ladoo Bai, Sher Singh, Ram Singh, and Dubu Bariya are other well-known Bhil artists.

3. The handmade Bhojpuri paintings of Uttar Pradesh (UP)Bhojpuri paintings are thought to have originated in the ancient region of Magadha now in the state of Bihar, India. It is said to be dating back to 1300 BC to the era of Ashoka, the third emperor of the Mauryan dynasty.

Bhojpuri paintings have two major styles, Khobar paintings, and Pidhya paintings. Khobar style symbolizes love and gratification. Pidhya painting depicts everyday life like farmers harvesting, and motifs like snakes, birds, flowers, and leaves.

Pidhya painting also portrays the natural bond between siblings. The paintings are made in bright natural colors. Red, Yellow, Black, and white are the prominent shades used in making the paintings.

4. The handmade Chittara art of Karnataka. Chittara is an indigenous art form that originated in the Deevaru community who reside in and around Sagara in the ranges of the Western Ghats in North Kanara.

Chittra drawings are intricate geometric patterns, representing auspicious ceremonies and rituals of life. The size of the paintings is usually 36 inches in height and 24 inches in width.

The paintings are made with natural color pigments made from rice paste for white, roasted rice for black, yellow seeds (gurige), and red earth. And the brushes are made of the fibers of the pundi plant.

5. The handmade Chitrakathi painting of Maharashtra. Chitrakathi paintings are an indigenous form of storytelling combining the visual form of paintings, Chitra, and story, Katha.

And the paintings form an integral part of the traditional oral storytelling performance undertaken by the storytellers of Maharashtra (Paithan and Pinguli), Andhra Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. The Thakkar tribal community of storytellers practice this almost extinct art form.

The size of the painting was standardized as appropriate for the village audience size. All paintings of one story were kept together in a single bundle called pothi. Usually, the number of paintings depicting one story exceeds 50 paintings.

The song is set first by the artist and the paintings are made after, in support of the story. The artist performs by narrating the story in song form while showing the paintings which serve as a visual aid.

6. Jadopatia painting of Jharkhand. Jadopatia paintings are an art form practiced in the Nawasar village of Dumka district in Jharkhand, India.

The word ‘Jadopatia’ is derived from the word, ‘Jadu’, the community which creates the paintings, and ‘Patia’ which is the scrolls on which these paintings are created.

The themes of these handmade paintings tell the stories from Ramayana and Mahabharata, of life after death, origins of life, festivals, and other rituals. Among all these stories, the life after death story plays the most significant role.

When there is a death in the Santhal family, the Chitrakars reach the house where the death has occurred, and show a painting of a dead person without pupils of the eyes depicting the pains of the departed with appropriate commentary on the suffering soul.

On receiving a small donation from the deceased’s family, the Chitrakar makes the pupils of the eyes, thereby making the departed soul happy. This ritual gives solace to the family of the deceased.

7. Kalamezhuthu, hand painting of Kerala. Kalamezhuthu is an ancient ritual art form practiced in Kerala, during the festivals of Bhadrakali temples and on special occasions in Ayyappankavu (temples of Lord Ayyapa) and SarppaKavu (groves sacred to the snakes).

Kalamezhuthu is done to propitiate the deities and to bring prosperity.

In the ritual art form, the deity’s form is drawn on the floor using five colored powders. The main deities depicted are Bhadrakali, Ayyapa, Vettakkorukan (Shiva Putra), Darika, and Sarpa Naga. Specific shlokas are sung fifteen minutes before the commencement of the drawing.

The actual drawing takes about two to four hours to complete. The colors used are derived from natural sources, like charcoal, rice, turmeric, lime, and green to make the five color powders, black, white, yellow, red, and green.

Once the rituals for the deities are completed, the Kalamezhuthu is ceremonially erased and colored powder distributed to the devotees as blessings of good health and prosperity.

8.Kangra painting, the handmade art of Himachal. The name Kangra painting has come from the erstwhile princely state of Kangra, a small hill state in the lower Himalayas in Kangra valley, presently located in Himachal Pradesh.

The themes of the handmade Kangra paintings are of the Shringara rasa, romantic love driven by the Bhakti movement, and the spiritual experience of the love story of Radha Krishna.
The painting style of Kangra painting is naturalistic and with a great deal of detail.

Another feature is the display of verdant greenery in all the paintings, a reflection of the natural greenery of the surroundings found in the lower Himalayas.

9. The folk art of Kavad painting of Rajasthan. The Kavad style of painting is practiced by the Kumawat community in a small village of Bassi, in the Bhilwara district near Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.

The Kawadiyas trace their ancestry to ‘Shravan’ a young boy in Ramayan, who was accidentally killed by King Dasharath, father of Lord Ram, while he was carrying his blind parents in a ‘kawadi‘ on his shoulders to worship in the temple.

His last dying wish to King Dasharath was to bring the temple to his parents so they can worship the Gods. The concept of Kavad started from here.

Kavad is a small portable wooden cabinet, which has 10-20 handmade painted panels which tell different stories and also double up as a portable temple.

The stories are from episodes of Ramayana and Mahabharat and narrate incidents from the lives of Ram, Krishna, and Vishnu.

The stories are narrated by the Kavadia Bhatt community, who travel from village to village to tell their tales with the help of the Kavad box which also serves as a portable temple.

As the stories progress different painted panels are unfolded to serve as a pictorial representation of the story. At the end of the story, the innermost panel is revealed, allowing the listeners (jajmans) to have Darshan of the presiding deity.

10. Handmade Kerala mural painting. Kerala handmade mural paintings are frescoes painted on the walls of ancient temples and palaces. They narrate various Hindu mythologies and stories.

The style of Kerala paintings is strikingly similar to the paintings found in the Ajanta cave murals made in the 2nd century - 8th century AD. Made only with natural pigments, the colors represent the qualities of the three Gunas-sattva, rajas, and tamas.

The basis of these paintings is described in Sanskrit texts, 'Chithrasoothram, (Chitrasutra is a part of the VishnuDharmottara Purana, a book written in Sanskrit about 1500 years ago.)

11. The handmade paintings of Kurumba, Tamil Nadu. Kurumba painting is an ancient tribal art form practiced by the Kurumba tribal community, found in the Nilgiri hills in Tamil Nadu, India.

The earliest recorded reference to the Kurumba tribes of Nilgiri is found in the work, An Account of the Primitive Tribes and Monuments of the Nilgiris by James Wilkinson Breeks, published in 1873.

They were mentioned again by Edgar Thurston in his book, Castes, and Tribes of Southern India, published in 1909.

The Kurumba community believes that the 3000-year-old rock paintings done in Eluthu Paari, near their dwelling place, at Vellarikombi located in the Kothagiri region were done by their ancestors. Kurumba painting is made on handmade paper, using natural colors.

Yellow, brown, and maroon color is made from the gum or sap of the Kino tree, green from the pigment extracted from the leaf of ‘Kattaikeerai’ or ‘kattaigida’ plant,

Reddish‐brown (semm‐manna), and white colors (budhi‐manna) are derived from various types of soils collected from the surrounding areas.

12. The Masan Painting. Masan painting is an art form practiced in Uttar Bangla, Northern part of West Bengal, parts of Assam, Meghalaya, Eastern Nepal, and Bihar. The word ‘Masan’ is derived from the Bengali word, ‘Shoshan’ for cremation ground.

In North Bengal, it is practiced by the Rajbanshi community who are the patrons of the Masan painting art form, also known as ‘Masan Chitrakala’ in Bengali. The art form is used by the Rajbanshi community to perform the Masan Pooja.

The history of Masan deities is linked with the ancient Bon religion of Tibet in North Bengal. The Tantric Buddhist deities are considered neither Gods nor demons and were meant to be worshiped in a crematorium or near cremation grounds.

13. Nirmal painting, The handmade art of Telangana. Nirmal paintings are an art form practiced in the Nirmal town in the erstwhile Adilabad district now renamed Nirmal district in Telangana, India and in Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.

The artists and artisans who work on creating these handmade oil paintings are known as ‘Naqash’.

Nirmal paintings trace their origins to the Kakatiya dynasty which ruled Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Eastern Karnataka, and the Southern Orissa region from the 12th century to the 14th century.

The paintings are handmade by using lacquer, acrylic, and oil painting and brushes on a teak wood or the soft white Puniki wood frame.

Shades of gold and gold leaves are used frequently in making these paintings which lend the paintings a golden hue and gives an elegant finish and adds luster to paintings.

14. Mandala art. “Mandala” is a Sanskrit word used to refer to a painting, or a diagram, with geometric patterns and designs, usually circular in construction, imbued with symbolic meaning.

Mandalas are artistically beautiful and can be used to depict stages of the spiritual journey. The most well-known type of mandala is those made of colored sand that can take weeks to create.

In certain meditation practices, the offering of a sand mandala ends with the mandala being wiped off to signify impermanence.

The origins of the Mandala are rooted in Hinduism and Buddhism. Mandala imagery first appeared in the Vedas (c. 1500-500 BC), and Buddhist monks are believed to have taken it outside India through the Silk Road.

By the 6th century, Mandalas were recorded in Tibet, China, Korea, Japan, and Indonesia. While used as a spiritual tool, Yantra, to aid spiritual awakening and practice, it has also become a form of creative expression in the hands of artists.

Modernist Indian painter SH Hazra has used Madala forms extensively in his oil paintings, and artworks with his Bindu series, which brought him global acclaim. Other well-known artists to have used Madala in their artworks are Sohan Qadri and Prafulla Mohanty.

15. Madhubani paintings, the handmade art of Bihar. Madhubani painting also known as Mithila paintings is one of the oldest folk art forms of India.

Named after the Madhubani district in Bihar, where the art form originated and is practiced, it has become one of the most recognized and popular folk art forms in India.

According to Indian history, itihaasa, it is said to have originated in the times of Ramayana, when King Janaka, Sita’s father, commissioned artists to create paintings for her wedding with Ram.

The Madhubani style of painting survived through the ages, from 1097 AD to c1550AD under the Karnatas and the Oinavaras which continued uninterruptedly under the Khandavala dynasty (Darbhanga raj) till the present day.

The art form is mainly practiced in the villages of Jitwarpur, Ranti, Rasidpur, Bacchi, and Rajangargh.

This post is an attempt to highlight the Indian folk art traditions, depth of her variety and style of handmade paintings and an enviable heritage that harks back to the millenia. The art experience of India is truly under appreciated.

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