Paintings & Visual Arts

Long before galleries, Indians painted on cave walls, palm leaves, cloth, and the mud walls of village homes. This section runs across all of it: the 2,000-year-old murals of Ajanta, the jewel-bright Mughal miniatures, the fish and gods of Madhubani, the scroll-paintings of Pattachitra, and Raja Ravi Varma, who put Hindu gods on calendars in every Indian home. Some of these traditions are still alive in the same villages that started them. Read about a single style, an artist, or a lost technique — the story of Indian art is really the story of who was allowed to make it, and for whom.