Objects Alive: Vernacular Furniture of North-West India

Alongside its architecture and textile traditions, northwestern India is home to little-studied material heritage that remains embedded in the everyday life of communities across the region. Its handmade furniture and other household infrastructure reflect not only local craftsmanship and design, but the region’s shared histories, and its social, cultural and ritual life. The Vernacular Furniture of North-West India project maps nearly 8000 such items spanning 130 types, across the states of Gujarat, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana. The first survey of its kind and scale, it investigates the construction, use and social contexts of these objects through extensive field research and documentation. 

The project, begun in 2015, is a collaboration between the UK-based charity South Asian Decorative Arts and Crafts Collection Trust (SADACC) and the Design Innovation & Craft Resource Center at CEPT University, Ahmedabad. Over eight years, a large multidisciplinary team documented these objects and their functions using photography, illustrations, technical drawings, 3D modelling and real-time location mapping. They interviewed over 4000 people in 429 towns and villages, building relationships that allowed them to observe and document the objects inside homes and to participate in communal life around these items. In addition to local specificity of form and use, the project gives particular care to terminology, drawing attention to the nuances of language and dialect that identify and distinguish typologies that extend far beyond notions signified by general English terms such as ‘bench’, ‘chair’ or ‘cabinet’. Besides feeding back into the catalogues of the South Asia Collection museum from where the project emerged, the research has generated open access catalogues, drawings and a website, as well as a number of publications.

In its mission to offer widely accessible educational resources on South Asian visual art and culture, Impart has partnered with SADACC to disseminate the project’s research outcomes through articles adapted for the Encyclopedia of Art, gathered in this collection — with more objects and their colourful lives yet to come. You can also learn more about the project’s background and research methodology in the Dialogue above with Mansi S Rao, curator at the South Asia Collection and one of the project’s chief researchers and authors.

Walls of Fortune: Indian Mural Painting Traditions

As the mud walls of homes and communal spaces are periodically renewed in Indian villages, they come alive with fresh patterns, motifs, and images of creatures both real and mythical. These murals mark the new and auspicious — births, marriages, harvests — yet remain age-old, their origins and subjects obscured in the mists of time. The Khovar and Sohrai wall-painting traditions of Jharkhand are believed to draw on the region’s Chalcolithic rock art; and the mythological roots of Madhubani painting appear in Ramayana legends.

The paintings also reflect this timelessness as they take the form of divine communion. The sacred ittal painted, with the guidance of shamans, inside the homes of Odisha’s Saora people themselves serve as shrines dedicated to ancestors or forest deities. Similar is the Pithora painting of the Bhil and Bhilara of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, for which specialised ‘writers’ are invited to create images that the village elder consecrates by ‘reading’. While these are the domain of men, women are the keepers of many other mural traditions — the histories, symbols and techniques of Sohrai, Khovar, Warli and Mandana are all traditionally passed down from mother to daughter.

Every aspect of the paintings is geographically and culturally rooted — the pigments and painting tools are made from local soils, plants and insects; the motifs are shaped by the regions’ flora, fauna and myths — as well as their emerging modern realities — and styles unique to particular villages have emerged because of the makers’ limited mobility. Many of these painting forms have been recognised and protected under Geographical Indication tags. Meanwhile, since the 1970s, individuals from some of these traditions have received recognition and entered the art market — in the process expanding the materials, context and vocabulary of the forms they draw on.

Explore these articles to learn about these varied mural practices, their makers and the beliefs surrounding them.

Bridging Worlds: Movements in Modern and Contemporary Indian Art

Influenced by the rapid socio-political developments in the West and inspired by the struggle against colonial rule at home, Indian art in the twentieth century was a kaleidoscope of styles, beliefs and innovations. Traditional art forms were revived with a new nationalist character even as Indian artists adopted the visual vocabularies of movements such as Cubism, Surrealism, Expressionism and Minimalism. Quickly making these styles their own, these artists found thought-provoking links between these Western movements and indigenous Indian traditions, culminating in forms such as Neo-Tantric art and the varied manifestations of subcontinental Abstractionism.

The Western art market model introduced through colonial rule allowed for individual artistic careers in contrast to the older frameworks of guilds and vernacular art and craft practices. Despite initial pushback from traditional institutions, Indian Modernist art received steady support from organisations, publications, scholars and private agents, becoming a canonical part of the country’s art history by the 1990s. Simultaneously, the liberalisation of the Indian economy in the early nineties ushered in new market forces amidst which artists could command unprecedented prices. With their work framed as an important new stage in a century-long history of Indian Modernism, the emerging artists of this era gained significant visibility and success in India and the West — a phenomenon that would build up to the Indian Art Boom of the early 2000s. These developments have fostered the creation of an Indian arm of the Western art market and industry that has come to be shaped by auctions, dealers, collectors and galleries, financial speculation, and venture capitalism.

Take a journey through the dynamic movements of Indian art of the last century with these articles.

Sacred Hollows: Cave Temples of the Deccan

Between the third century BCE and the tenth century CE, various imperial dynasties in the Indian peninsula carved enormous yet intricate temples and monasteries into the volcanic flood basalt of the Deccan plateau and the Western Ghats. Excavated into cliff-sides and ravines are Buddhist viharas, Jain prayer halls and Hindu temples that shaped Deccan architectural vocabulary. The legacy of master artisans and powerful patrons, among them are some of the finest works of religious art, and marvels of architecture and engineering including a sprawling complex hosting the world’s largest monolithic rock-cut monument.

These structures are remarkable not only for their size, architecture and sculptural programmes but also for the interplay of styles and iconography they contain. Stories from the Hindu Puranas and Upanishads merge with Buddhist Jatakas and Jain mythologies in carved friezes and murals at Badami, Ravanaphadi and Ajanta. Deities from across traditions stand alongside each other in the Ellora Caves, some contemporaneous, others the result of shifting powers over time. Changing political ascendancy between dynasties also brought about the conversion of some shrines, such as the Dashavatara Cave, thought to have originally been excavated as a Buddhist shrine before the Rashtrakutas rendered it in Shaiva imagery; as well as the appropriation of the gods of the defeated — the Chalukyas‘ depiction of the Saptamatrikas, their rival Kadambas’ dynastic deities, at the Ravanaphadi Cave is thought to be an example.

The iconography, inscriptions and layering of styles in these monuments also reveals the migrations and influences of a mobile and multicultural community of artisans — expert miners, sculptors, metalworkers and others. Gupta artisans crossed the breadth of the country from northern and eastern India to execute the murals and sculptures at Ajanta; the Rashtrakutas drew Pallava sculptors from the southeastern part of the peninsula for their building programmes at Ellora.

Take a look inside these rock-cut complexes to discover the interwoven religious, political and artistic histories of first-millennium India.

The Ties That Bind: Indian Wedding Textiles

Weddings in India revolve around diverse religious and folk ceremonies, with rituals and offerings to ward off evil and invite good fortune. While fire, water, fruit and flowers represent prosperity, fertility, abundance and spiritual transformation for the marrying couple, their dresses too participate in the creation of omens. Besides denoting caste and community, wedding textiles — from heirloom saris to shawls whose making begins at the birth of a future bride or groom — are imbued with rich meaning and ancestry, which run through their materials, colours, patterns, and motifs.

In South India, a wedding ceremony is incomplete without the Kanjivaram sari, woven in Tamil Nadu using mulberry silk sourced from Karnataka. The baavan buti sari exchanged in Bihar as a wedding gift gets its name from the fifty-two auspicious Buddhist motifs woven across its body, including stupas, lotuses and elephants. In the Punjab region across India and Pakistan, intricately embroidered shawls featuring phulkari or vari da bagh are key parts of the bride’s wedding trousseau, passed down or made for her by older women of the family. Brides and grooms across Hindu and Bohra Muslim communities in Gujarat don versions of the ikat textile known as Patan patola. While Muslim grooms in Lucknow wear the European-style button-down achkan developed in the mid-nineteenth century, women of various tribes in Mizoram are married in their respective puan — unstitched garments with a long history and varied designs that link them with different communities and occasions.

Discover these and other textiles that join Indian couples in important new beginnings.

Stories from Signatures: Discovering Hoysala Master Sculptors

Having built 1,500 temples within a span of 180 years (c. 1100–1280), the Hoysalas are among the greatest builders of Hindu religious structures in the history of South Asia. While ancient and medieval Indian art has largely remained anonymous — with ideas of individual authorship absent in most of these cultures — many of the sculptors and architects patronised by the Hoysala court inscribed their names and other details on the temples they worked on. This has provided valuable information to scholars about the movement, employment and status of artists at the time. Many of them, hailing from Western Chalukyan centres of art, carried forward the Karnata Dravida style of temple architecture when employed by the Hoysala court.

The most prominent of the Hoysala sculptors include Dasoja and his son Chavana, Harisha of Talagonda, Gangachari Vardhamanachari, Biroja, and — perhaps the most prolific — Ruvari Mallithamma. In light of the intricacy and dynamism of the sculptures on Hoysala temples, it is unsurprising that many local legends and stories about these artists have circulated in the region for several centuries. Such mystery and legend surrounds Jakanachari — who, despite a lack of epigraphic evidence, has been linked to temples built across three centuries of Western Chalukya and Hoysala rule. It can only be assumed that this was a long-running guild or several generations of artisans going by the same name.

Learn more about these master craftsmen and their reconstructed histories through these articles.

Through the Eye of the Needle: Embroidery and Appliqué in the Subcontinent

Ornamentation has been a key aspect in the long history of craftsmanship in the Indian subcontinent — and this is perhaps most striking in the region’s textile crafts. Embroidery and appliqué traditions from the region have been well known across the historic Indian Ocean trade network for millennia, finding mention in texts such as the first-century CE Greek maritime logbook Periplus of the Erythrean Sea.

The specialised skills and techniques of embroidery that artisans use — sometimes spending months at a stretch on a single garment — often make for luxury textiles. The dense needlework used for the all-over floral designs of sozni embroidery from Kashmir, and the counting-thread technique of angular, carefully proportioned kasuti designs from Karnataka are examples of such ornate textiles. In some traditions, special objects or materials, of actual or symbolic significance, are stitched into the embroidered design in order to add value to the garment. Notable among these are beetle wing embroidery, which gained popularity under Mughal and British rule; embroidery using zari, or gold thread, practised through most of South Asian history in major weaving centres such as Varanasi and Kanchipuram; and the highly varied embroidery of the nomadic Banjara community, who add coins, sequins and cowrie shells to their colourful designs.

Certain traditions of needlework often serve practical functions along with ornamental ones. Appliqué traditions such as pipili, tharu, kantha, and khatwa repurpose fabric from old or damaged garments to make everyday items that include quilts, such as the kowdhi, and bags. Pieces of old fabric are often strategically composed to yield distinctive, aesthetically pleasing designs.

Many of these techniques are complex enough to have resisted mechanisation, such as those of beetle wing and sozni embroidery. Several others use unique, purpose-made tools like the ari, a hooked needle like that used in crochet.

Learn about the Indian subcontinent’s varied embroidery and needlework traditions with these articles.

Customs of Combat: Martial Art Traditions of India

Traditional Indian martial arts combine physical skill with mental discipline and spiritual thought. Varying in style and technique across regions, they often form part of the ceremonial and ritualistic practices of a community and are significant in shaping cultural identity. Most Indian martial arts utilise weapons, though typically not specialised ones but versatile tools such as wooden staffs and clubs; a variety of blades in the form of daggers, swords and spears; or the bow and arrow, as in the thoda tradition from Himachal Pradesh.

The complexity of the rules of traditional martial arts and the intricacy of their movement sequences generally limit the use of these forms in practical combat and make them akin to dance; some, such as chhau from eastern India, also have a dramatic component. However, certain traditional forms have had application in war, such as pari-khanda from Jharkhand, which was used for training soldiers in using the sword and shield, and mardaani khel, a Marathi martial art that played a major role in directing the Maratha army’s military formations.

Throughout the nineteenth century, the British colonial government made certain martial arts illegal, such as kalaripayattu from Kerala and the Meiti practice of thang-ta, pushing many of these traditions to near-extinction. They were kept alive through secret tutelage, orally transmitted community knowledge and, in some cases, written instructions, allowing them to re-emerge after the end of colonial rule in the subcontinent.

Initially restricted to particular regions, many martial arts have spread to other regions both nationally and globally as instructors have taught or set up studios elsewhere in the contemporary period. Since the 1990s, institutions have been established to regulate the form and quality of instruction, as well as preserve traditional methods. These include the Indian Kalaripayattu Federation, the National Gatka Association of India and the World Silambam Federation. A variety of government-supported programmes and private tutors also make these traditions accessible to the general public.

Across Borders: Art Objects that Reveal Cultural Exchange

South Asia’s trade connections by land and sea have shaped the region’s art and culture in varied and subtle ways since the early third millennium BCE. As merchants, travellers and missionaries from diverse and far-flung parts converged along trade routes such as the Silk Road and in port cities of the Indian subcontinent, they exchanged not only commercial goods and art objects but also ideas and techniques. In these cosmopolitan centres, pre-existing indigenous traditions melded with foreign influences. Styles and motifs were borrowed and exchanged freely across religions and traditions, resulting not in imitation but rather in the transformation of existing genres and the birth of new forms.

Many South Asian traditions exemplify this fusion, from the sculptures produced in Gandhara in the second century BCE to the illuminated manuscripts made for Deccan courts in the seventeenth century. However, nativist concerns for ‘authentic’ indigenous styles and forms have often hindered the recognition of such syntheses in South Asian art.

The debate over origins has been especially concentrated around objects and structures that have come to be closely associated with regional, national and religious identities. The anthropomorphic Buddha images from Gandhara and Mathura, the sophisticated Mauryan animal capitals and even certain symbols such as the ubiquitous buta and Tree of Life motifs are cases in point. Yet, such images, in fact, exemplify both the curiosity and adaptability of the South Asian artist, artisan and patron. They are a testament to the richness of the region’s economic and cultural resources, which have attracted people and influences from varied traditions across continents.

Explore the stories of transcontinental exchange behind the iconic objects in these articles.

Jewels for Royalty: Gems and Ornaments from the Indian Subcontinent

Central to traditional costumes and ceremonies in South Asia, elaborate jewellery has a long history in India. Ornaments, especially of gold, form a significant part of Indian family heirlooms to this day. Creativity and excellence in craftsmanship were fostered in Indian jewellery as the associated traditions of meenakari, thewa, ivory-carving, gem-cutting and others received royal support and patronage. Royal families through the ages have commissioned unique accessories that have gone on to become culturally significant objects — often by design, as these objects were custom-made to symbolise the wealth, influence and resources of their owners. As the only known source of diamonds until the early eighteenth century, the Indian subcontinent also has a uniquely long and violent history of these and other gemstones changing hands as spoils of war.

A pair of gold earrings from the first century BCE — extraordinarily large and heavy by modern standards — is among the oldest jewellery discovered in the subcontinent. Associated with deified rulers, it finds representation in ancient Buddhist sculpture. More recent examples such as the Toussaint Necklace, the Pearl Carpet of Baroda, the Patiala Necklace and the Patiala Ruby Choker, serve as testament to the wealth and access, if not political power, that certain Indian royal families enjoyed under British rule. Often designed and set by leading jewellery firms in Europe, these commissions also embody the aesthetic fusions of East and West being explored in these elite circles at the time. For later generations of royalty, these iconic pieces of jewellery became reliable ways to avoid bankruptcy, through distress sales.

Royal jewels have changed hands not only through sales, inheritance and gifts but also often through war and theft — perhaps most famously in the case of the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which had already seen several conquests in its legendary history by the time it was handed over to the British Crown through the Treaty of Lahore. Many such objects have been part of a complex global — and not always legal — trade in precious goods, as much for their historical significance as for their intrinsic value. The provenance and mystique of these jewels — many of which disappeared from the historical record for decades at a time, or were modified with changing fashions — add to their rich legacy.

Follow these jewels’ journeys of pomp and intrigue through these articles.

Woodblock Printing Traditions from across India

The process of stamping designs on fabric using dye-soaked, hand-carved wooden blocks is known as woodblock printing.

The convenience of combining motifs and intricate patterns on different blocks to create unique designs made the resulting textile affordable and appealing. Some of the more popular block printing traditions include ajrakh, bagh, bagru, sanganeri, saudagiri, mata ni pachedi, namavali and balotra, as well as the less popular traditions of the Chhimba community in Punjab and the more recent printing practices in Serampore of West Bengal.

Although block printing is believed to have been practised in a rudimentary form as early as the Indus Valley civilisation, the earliest material evidence of these textiles and their international trade came from fragments of cloth from Gujarat, found in Egypt and Indonesia, dated to the thirteenth or fourteenth century. The Indian Ocean trade in Indian textiles continued until it was taken over by the British East India Company and the Crown in the nineteenth century.

While several Indian communities practise the craft, the Khatris and Chippas in the country’s northwestern regions are the oldest known communities to have been continuously involved in block printing, going back as far as the sixteenth century.

Understanding South Asia’s Most Recognisable Dyes

Indian textile dyes date back four thousand years, with the earliest evidence being madder-dyed cloth fragments from Mohenjo-Daro dating to the second millennium BCE. Trade of dyes may have begun in this same period, based on the traces of indigo found in Egyptian tombs and the later records of trade with the Mediterranean world. Commercial activity around natural dyes reached its height during the medieval and early colonial periods in the form of block-printed and kalamkari cloth before they were largely replaced by European synthetic dyes.

Indian dyes were coveted not only for their vibrancy and their use in inventive textiles but also because of the carefully guarded traditional dyeing processes, which often involved the application of mineral salts or mordants that fixed the colour to the fabric, making the colours uniquely durable. Shades of blue made from indigo, black from haritaki (black myrobalan) and khair (acacia bark), and a range of reds, lilac and burgundy made from manjistha (madder), chay root, aal (Indian mulberry) and lac insects were the longest-lasting dyes, which is why these colours are still visible on fabric thousands of years later. Yellow dyes are made mainly from haldi (turmeric root) and to a lesser extent kusumba (safflower), palash (Parrot tree) flowers and pomegranate rind. However, natural yellow dyes are relatively short-lived compared to blue or red, as are mixed dyes that use a yellow element, such as greens and oranges.

The Mask in Indian Art

Indian mask-making traditions are typically practised by specific non-dominant castes or Adivasi communities. They are worn as part of a costume in a range of traditional performances from martial arts like Chhau to narrative dance forms like Kathakali. In most dance or theatre forms, masks are used as a way of maintaining iconographical consistency regardless of the performer, while in others, such as Cham and Bhagavata Mela Natakam, the mask is also a way to channel a supernatural entity. In a few traditions, the mask is also considered a sacred object, such as the Bhuta mask or the Narasimha mask used in Prahlad Nataka performances.

Most Indian masks are made of perishable materials like paper pulp or wood, and as a result, surviving historical examples are rare and much more recent than the performances in which they are used. In some cases, such as Kathakali, the mask is actually a thick and vivid layer of make-up that effectively replaces the performer’s face. Exceptions to this perishability include bronze Bhuta masks, examples of which date back to the eighteenth century.

Mask-making, like many Adivasi and folk traditions, is typically inherited and is less frequently practised today due to insufficient commercial incentives.

Textile Traditions from Punjab: Phulkaris and Baghs

Two closely linked embroidery traditions historically practiced by the women of undivided Punjab since the late medieval period, both phulkari and bagh embroidery involve the arrangement of floral, geometric and sometimes narrative imagery on a red base fabric, also known as khaddar. Literally meaning “flower work,” phulkari is recognised by its neat, regular patterns that leave large portions of the khaddar visible. With the bagh embroidery — bagh means garden — the khaddar is almost completely covered, exposed only as thin lines in the design. Hence the name, which likens the embroidered garment to a field of flowers. Due to the intricate work involved, baghs are almost never made today.

The origins of the crafts are debated, with some scholars suggesting that it was introduced to India through Central Asia by the Jat community in the late medieval period, while others state that the craft is a variation of Persian embroidery designs.

Traditionally, odhinis and chaddars were embroidered and these were often given as gifts at major events in women’s lives, particularly marriage. The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw the beginning of the commercial application of the craft on other garments, such as coats, for women living in the cities. Following the Partition, phulkari and bagh embroidery went into a decline in India and Pakistan through the 1950s, but has since been partially revived and commercialised through efforts by government and corporate entities.

Sacred Gestures: Mudras in Buddhist Iconography

Mudras are a set of hand gestures that serve as symbols in Buddhist art and iconography, representing the Buddha’s various roles and states of mind. Their earliest instances are seen in sculpture from Gandhara in the first century CE, and they appear to have been codified by the third century CE.

The fingers of the hand are thought to represent five levels of consciousness needed to attain Buddhahood, therefore various gestural configurations are seen as syntheses of these factors. Mudras also represent the dominant themes in particular episodes of the Buddha’s life, making the gestures useful as narrative and pedagogical devices for viewers familiar with the symbolism. They are typically shown being performed by figures of religious authority such as the Buddha and bodhisattvas.

Of the large number of such gestures, the five primary mudras are the abhaya mudra (the most common), the dharmachakra mudra, the bhumisparsha mudra, the varada mudra and the dhyana mudra. They are also associated, respectively, with the five celestial Buddha-aspects known as the Tathagata or Dhyani Buddhas, and accordingly form part of their iconography.

Mudras are also found in Hindu and Jain iconography, albeit to a lesser extent and only after being established in Buddhism. Classical dance forms, particularly those in India that have emerged in association with religion, also feature a repertoire of mudras.

Learn more about the common mudras through these articles.

Portable Paintings: Storytelling and Worship

Folk painting traditions in India are distinct from murals and illustrated manuscripts because they are intended for a mass audience and are often moved from place to place by performers who use these paintings as narrative aids.

In many such painting traditions including Phad, Cheriyal and Manjusha, the painting and performance of the narrator is a joint effort and is undertaken by artisans from non-dominant caste communities. The content of the paintings varies from tradition to tradition but typically has a strong regional character, whether it is entirely devoted to the deified folk heroes of Phad paintings, or the regional versions of the Puranas illustrated in Cheriyal painting. In the case of traditions like Patua, illustrations are tailored to the myths and stories of the communities that make up each town or village that the performers visit.

At times, but not always, the performances are attended by audiences that belong to Adivasi and non-dominant caste groups. Such arrangements are a major component in regional networks among marginalised groups, in addition to barter and trade textiles, produce and handicraft items.

In painting traditions like Patachitra and Phad, as well as related practices like mask-making, the objects themselves have sacred value and are treated as portable shrines.

Popular Games that Originated in India

The Indian subcontinent is home to several traditional tabletop games, including some that have come to be known by other names today, such as Snakes and Ladders (originally known as Moksha Patam) and Ludo (Pachisi). Games and game ideas moved to and from India along trade routes: Ganjifa was brought to India by the Mughals, Naqsh was a confluence of Ganjifa and card games played by Portuguese sailors, and Pallanguzhi arrived through trade with eastern Africa, where its ancestor mancala was invented. Games like Moksha Patam, Carrom and Pachisi travelled to Europe, UK and USA through colonial agents.

Indian board games are typically cross and circle games with randomisers, played by two to four players. The players’ status was reflected in the choice of game or the type of board, with emperors like Akbar playing a life-sized version of Chaupar. At one time considered talismans and even a form of currency, cowrie shells were used as an affordable randomiser or token for board games by most people, while wealthier classes used ivory dice.

The idea of luck in games, extrapolated as divine play, is a recurring theme in Indian mythology, notably in the Mahabharata and the Skanda Purana. Most Indian tabletop games contain underlying moral commentary and heavy symbolism. Among variations of Ganjifa, the images on the cards and the suit divisions are indicative of the social and religious context from which they emerged.

Monolithic Sculpture and Architecture

A sculpture or building made by cutting a single piece of rock into the desired shape is called a monolith. Monolithic architecture may be considered a subset of rock-cut architecture; it is carved internally and externally, while still attached to the surrounding landscape. Monolithic sculpture, however, may be separated from its original location and moved elsewhere, prime examples of which are the Lion Capital at Sarnath, the Gomateshvara statue at Shravanabelagola, Karnataka and the Ugra Narasimha statue at Hampi.

The decision to carve a living rock is widely assumed to have been based, at least partially, on convenience as evenly sized blocks did not have to be quarried and transported to the construction site. Another reason is spiritual; living rock architecture is seen to possess a connection to nature. The earliest example is the caves in the Barabar hills where Buddhist ascetics could take refuge from the weather since caves (even artificial ones) were considered an extension of the natural world as opposed to the material civilisation which the ascetics had disavowed. Such monolithic architecture has thus been reserved exclusively for ambitious religious buildings, such as the Pancha Rathas at Mahabalipuram and the Kailasanatha temple in Ellora.

Major Schools of Indian Miniature Painting

Known for their intricacy and small scale, miniature paintings in medieval India were composed into personal albums (or muraqqas) and manuscripts where they illustrated the accompanying text. Such manuscripts largely consisted of romances, epics, works of fantasy, travel literature, religious texts and biographies.

The tradition of miniature painting in the Indian subcontinent has been traced to palm leaf manuscripts made in the ninth century under Pala patronage in eastern India and Nepal. From the eleventh century onwards, Jain manuscript painting began to be practised in the west and central India, first on palm leaf and then, with the introduction of paper from West Asia in the fourteenth century, in large paper codices as well. These palm leaf paintings had a limited but bold colour palette and used innovative compositions to pair the text with images.

The painting style of the Safavid court in Persia exerted a heavy influence on Mughal and Deccan miniature painting in the late sixteenth century. Mughal painting was especially influential due to the empire’s political power, and this naturalistic, restrained and yet heavily ornamented style was often imitated by smaller kingdoms. Rajasthani, Deccan, Maratha and Pahari courts often employed artists who had trained in the Mughal style, although these schools eventually came to be known for their own unique styles, techniques and subject matter.

Made in India: Objects that Travelled the World

India’s international trade history is extensive and it can be divided based on periods and routes. Trade primarily occurred in the Indian Ocean from the Bronze Age onwards and arguably still continues, connecting the Indian peninsula to Southeast Asia, the Persian Gulf ports, the Red Sea ports and the East African coast. The oldest known use of this route was between the Indus Valley cities and ports in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, as evidenced by stamp seals, textiles dyed with indigo and madder root, and agate beads.

Following the expansion of the overland and maritime silk routes, Indian trade with the Mediterranean reached its peak in the first century CE, leading to artefacts like an ivory yakshi statue — believed to be from either Bagram or Bharuch — finding its way to Pompeii. Mediaeval Indian Ocean trade, particularly in the case of dyed cotton textiles with kalamkari or block-printed designs, flourished until colonial encroachments in the eighteenth century. Thereafter, Indian goods became models for imitation and alteration during the British Raj, eventually being replaced through mechanisation. This effectively ended the major role that India played in global trade until the country’s economy was liberalised in 1991.

Indian Photographers Working in the Colonial Era

Early Indian photographers were usually hobbyists from wealthy families, as they had access to the equipment and leisure time needed to practice the craft. Typically male — with rare exceptions like Annapurna Dutta — these photographers imitated British and European practitioners in their methods and choice of subjects. This included monuments, landscapes and portraits. The latter included commissioned portraits of royalty or wealthy clients, and anthropological documentation of Indians from non-dominant caste or indigenous groups. This exchange between Western and Indian photographers occurred mainly through journals, exhibitions and amateur photographic societies in Bombay, Madras and Calcutta (now Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata, respectively).

By the twentieth century, cameras were affordable (while still being a major investment) and portable, making it feasible to learn and apply photography as a skill. Photographers and photojournalists, such as Narayan Virkar, Homai Vyarawalla and Kulwant Roy, were more conscious of the socio-political applications of the camera than their nineteenth-century predecessors. They documented the freedom movement, took portraits of prominent leaders, and captured instances of colonial suppression. Others, like AL Syed, Mitter Bedi and Madan Mahatta, worked in homegrown industries that had embraced photography, such as fine art, cinema, advertising and tourism.

Hot Buttons: Art Objects with Contested Meanings

Re-discovered art objects from pre-modern India provide valuable clues about the artistic styles, patronage, material use and religious iconography of their time and place. In rare instances, however, objects of clear importance but no context are found, sparking debate among historians about their place in South Asian history. When ensuing debates are sustained over time, they often elevate the artwork well beyond its actual historical significance.

Colonial-era historians have been accused of making ill-fitting comparisons between Indian art and movements in European history, such as Gothic architecture or Hellenistic sculpture. Early Indian art historians who received a Western education but whose values were shaped by the independence movement, may bring a nationalistic lens that emphasises the antiquity of an Indian art object while rejecting the foreign influences it may have received. The effect of colonisation — and by extension, Victorian morality — in India can be seen in writing that forefronts the spirituality of Indian art, while downplaying the importance of violent or erotic imagery. In some cases, over-extrapolation motivated by religious agendas may pose as fact, creating myths for later historians to dispel.

Practical factors that affect the process of reassembling this lost context include technological limitations for dating artefacts, lost or missing objects, undeciphered languages and so forth.

Hand Woven and Hand-Knotted: Carpets and Rugs

Dating back to the tenth century, traditional Indian hand-knotted carpets and rugs rose to prominence in the sixteenth century under sustained Mughal patronage. Carpets were a major trade textile in the colonial period as well and were sometimes made by inmates in prisons.

Indian carpets are typically made of knotted wool with a woven cotton base. Most traditions use the asymmetrical Persian knot, for which a strand of yarn is tied around two adjacent warp threads, and fineness is determined by the kind and number of knots. Carpets typically feature recurring motifs, including palmettes, geometrical shapes, flowers, the tree of life and occasionally, animals. Some Indian carpets also contain representations of landscapes.

Since the sixteenth century, many Indian carpet varieties have borrowed design elements from Iran and Central Asia; but they were soon distinguished from these traditions by the relatively brighter colours of Indian dyes. Additionally, Tibetan rugs like khabdan have been produced by Tibetan artisans at centres in Himachal Pradesh and Assam since the 1950s.

Notable types of carpets and rugs from across India include gabba, kaleen, galeecha and dhurrie. Most historic carpet and rug manufacturing centres were located in the northern and western regions of the Indian subcontinent, while contemporary centres include some in the south and north-east India as well.

Gold, Talismans and Beetle Wings: Ornamentation in Indian Art

The decorative aspect of an art object is crucial to most Indian crafts, and is central to traditional beliefs about beauty and, in some cases, divinity or magic. This is outlined in aesthetic theories such as alamkara and dhwani, and put into practice through texts such as the Shilpa Shastras and the Raga Vibodha. Ornamentation is seen as an enlivening layer on existing craft objects and is applied to clothing, jewellery worn by human figures in art, the adornment of buildings with sculptures, the mood of a melody, and the inventive use of metaphor in language.

In some cases, materials with real-world value are used to ornament an object, such as gold and silver zari thread applied to Banarasi brocades and gota work in Rajasthan, or expensive pigments like ultramarine blue (derived from lapis lazuli) and gold used in illustrated manuscripts. Valuable materials may also be simulated, as in the case of beetle-wing embroidery, or embellishments like coins and cowrie shells used in Banjara embroidery. Temporary murals, such as Mandana, Sohrai and Khovar painting, are often used to mark important events by decorating a home or other important spaces. Ornamentation can also serve a talismanic function, as in the case of Kolam floor painting from Tamil Nadu, even when this is done by ritually marring existing decorative elements with motifs like the Nazar Battu in phulkari embroidery. Explore a diversity of ornamentation through these articles.

Get to Know the Artists Who Emerged during the Indian Art Boom

A major result of the liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991 was a surge in economic and cultural exchange between India and the world. Globalisation ushered in a sharp increase in the prices and sales of Indian art during the Indian Art Boom of the early 2000s. The Boom period established the careers of several emerging artists in India following the work of writers like Geeta Kapur, who laid out a historical backdrop of Indian Modernism. This sparked an academic interest in cultural production amidst the newly opened, fast-growing Indian economy, allowing for financial speculation on contemporary Indian art. Due to the rapid changes in the commercial infrastructure for Indian art, the Boom period is often criticised as the beginning of an era of opportunism, exclusivity and elitism in the Indian art community.

Artists of the time commented on changes in Indian consumption patterns and visual culture following liberalisation. They built on Modernist questions on how a nation is built, identified visible signs of India’s ascendant urban middle class, developed a vocabulary of symbols that emerged from uniquely Indian modernity and its tense relationship with the past, and exposed regional class and caste politics on large and small scales.

Early Photo Studios in Pre-Independence India

Introduced to India in the mid-nineteenth century by British officers, photography was meant to aid in anthropological and administrative surveys of the population. The practice acquired a commercial dimension through the emergence of photography studios, which were not obliged to fulfil colonial directives and could become a site of aesthetic possibilities. The lone travelling photographer and his limited equipment were soon replaced by purpose-built studios strategically situated in major cities, to better cater to British clientele and Indian royal families. Some grew into franchises that spanned multiple locations across the subcontinent.

The earliest photography studios in India were run by Europeans, who weren’t affiliated with the East India Company, such as F Schranhofer and Augustus G Roussac in 1849 and 1850 respectively. Soon after, British studios like Bourne & Shepherd, established in 1863, attained significant commercial success. This system of photography was adopted and perfected by Indian studios like Deen Dayal & Sons, established in 1874. Later Indian photography firms were notable for their innovations with the medium as well as the space, such as Mahatta & Co which started its studio on a houseboat, and the combination of painting and photography practised by Khubiram Gopilal in Nathdwara.

Early Photo Albums from the British Raj

Photographic albums gained popularity soon after the camera arrived in mid-nineteenth-century India. Beginning in the 1850s, most photographic albums consisted of carte de visite portraits or card-sized photographs made in batches that fit onto a single plate, thus saving materials and money. Such albums were usually made by photographers such as Hurrychund Chintamon, on commissions from wealthy Indian families. A carte de visite album, unlike later ones that used full-sized photographs, was seen as an expensive but still affordable luxury that became an intergenerational heirloom. Scholars have stipulated that the photo album may have been particularly appealing due to its similarity to the muraqqa: albums of miniature paintings that were made for royal families or individuals in Islamic courts.

The assumption of truthfulness in a photograph was often undermined by the album format with photographers using staged scenes or techniques like combination printing. Ethnographic surveys by colonial officers took the form of photo books from the 1860s onwards, and are considered deeply problematic today. This medium was also used to stage exoticised or stereotypical scenes of Indian life meant to intrigue the viewer rather than reflect reality, such as Darogah Abbas Ali’s albums on the erstwhile court of Oudh at Lucknow.

Doorways and Divinity: Guardian Spirits in South Asian Art

Typically invoked to protect homes, temples or individuals, guardian spirits are a standard presence in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain iconography. These entities are most prominently represented when shown flanking doorways on buildings or in illustrated manuscripts and are depicted more subtly for individual protection in talismanic pendants and garments. Guardian spirits may sometimes be deities in their own right, such as the god Kubera who often assumes the role of a dvarapala, or doorway guardian, in Buddhist temples. While guardians such as Yakshas and Yakshis are depicted in a stately human form, others have animal or chimeric forms, such as Makaras or the many types of Yali. Fearsome entities such as these — also known as grotesques — are meant to represent the powerful natural forces controlled by the temple deity.

Outside organised religions, guardian spirits also occur in regional or Adivasi folklore, such as the Rakhondars of Goa, Jimmidaarin yaya worshipped by the Gond people and several others. Some deities are considered guardians by virtue of controlling diseases, such as the goddesses Sitala and Mariamma, who, it is believed, protect their devotees from smallpox.

Bengal Modernism: Revival and Revolution

The Bengal School, as it came to be known, was India’s earliest modern art movement. Revivalist and anti-colonial in its goals, the movement gained prominence after the Partition of Bengal in 1905 and grew out of an increasing disdain among the Indian art intelligentsia for Western aesthetic sensibilities and the exoticising gaze with which India’s natural, cultural and mythological heritage was often depicted. This included a rejection of Company paintings commissioned by British collectors and researchers, as well as the work of artists like Raja Ravi Varma who painted in a Western naturalist style.

The movement turned to Indian styles like miniature painting, Mysore painting, folk and indigenous art traditions, used local materials like tempura, and derived its subject matter from Indian history and mythology. Abanindranath Tagore and others also collaborated with Japanese artists in an attempt to formulate a pan-Asian aesthetic that stood in contrast to European Realism.

EB Havell and Abinandranath Tagore are considered the founders of the Bengal School. Other prominent artists in the movement include Abinandranath’s brothers Gaganendranath and Rabindranath Tagore, and from the following generation, Nandalal Bose, Kshitindranath Mukherjee, AR Chughtai, Asit Kumar Haldar and K Venkatappa. Significant institutions established by the movement include the Government College of Art, the Indian Society of Oriental Art and Visva-Bharati University in Shantiniketan.

Company Painting: Art, Empire and Science

A category of artists who emerged out of an interaction between Indian and European culture and scientific exploration after the British East India Company gained administrative control over Bengal in 1757, were known as Company painters. Company rule resulted in the loss of courtly patronage for artists in India, which led to artists and craftsmen from the courtly centres in Bengal migrating to cities such as Patna and Murshidabad, which had viable commercial markets.

The East India Company and its officials, such as William Fraser and James Skinner, often operated as middlemen, putting visiting naturalists and ethnographers in touch with local artists who could be commissioned to visually document the subjects of the survey. The Company school had several centres across the subcontinent, populated by artists who had been trained in local traditional Indian painting styles and then adopted conventions of Western art, such as perspective, chiaroscuro and the picturesque. Indian painters thus played a major role in creating these early ethnographic and scientific records of the natural and cultural features of India, including flora, fauna, geology, costumes, architecture and street scenes. Notable artists of the Company painting school included Sewak Ram of Patna and Ghulam Ali Khan of Delhi.