Painting Traditions of India — Murals to Miniatures to Modern

Why This Chapter Matters

Painting is one of the highest-yield topics in the Art & Culture section of SSC and RRB papers. Almost every paper carries at least one or two questions from this chapter, and the topic keeps returning because it lends itself to neat, table-friendly facts: a school of painting, its home state, its typical subject, and one famous name attached to it. Examiners like it precisely because the facts are short and unambiguous, which makes it easy to frame a one-line MCQ.

The sub-topics that repeat most are the cave murals (Ajanta and Bagh), the miniature schools (Mughal and the Rajasthani sub-schools of Rajput painting, plus Pahari), and the folk/tribal painting styles tied to a state (Madhubani-Bihar, Warli-Maharashtra, Pattachitra-Odisha, Kalamkari-Andhra Pradesh, Tanjore-Tamil Nadu). Questions on the Bengal School and its leading figures (Abanindranath Tagore, Nandalal Bose) and on Raja Ravi Varma also appear regularly. Treat every style-state-artist combination in this chapter as fair game.

1. Mural Painting Traditions (Ancient and Early Medieval)

Mural paintings are painted directly on walls or ceilings, usually on a prepared plaster surface. India's earliest surviving mural tradition is the cave art of the Deccan and central India, most of it associated with Buddhist monastic sites.

1.1 Ajanta Caves

The Ajanta caves in Maharashtra (near Aurangabad, on the Waghora river) contain the finest surviving body of ancient Indian painting. The caves were cut in two phases: an early Hinayana phase around the 2nd century BCE, and a later Mahayana phase under the Vakataka dynasty around the 5th century CE. The paintings use the tempera technique on a lime-plaster ground, never true fresco (fresco requires painting into wet plaster; Indian mural painters painted onto dry plaster after applying colour, which is technically "fresco-secco" tempera work, though textbooks often loosely call it fresco).

Subjects at Ajanta are almost entirely Buddhist: Jataka tales (stories of the Buddha's previous births), scenes from the Buddha's life, and images of Bodhisattvas. The most famous single painting is the Bodhisattva Padmapani in Cave 1. Ajanta was rediscovered in 1819 by a British officer during a tiger hunt, and it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site (inscribed 1983).

1.2 Bagh Caves

The Bagh caves are in Madhya Pradesh, on the Bagh river, a tributary of the Narmada. Also Buddhist viharas, they are close in style and date to the later Ajanta phase (around the 5th–6th century CE) but the paintings here are more secular in flavour, showing dancers, musicians and courtly processions rather than only religious scenes. Bagh murals are more damaged than Ajanta's, and several fragments were removed to museums for conservation, including the National Museum, Delhi and the Gwalior museum.

1.3 Other Early Mural Sites

Site	State	Period/Notes
Ellora	Maharashtra	Painting in Kailasa temple (Cave 16), mostly later repainting over earlier layers
Sittanavasal	Tamil Nadu	Jain cave, Pandya period paintings, lotus pond ceiling fresco
Armamalai Cave	Tamil Nadu	Jain paintings
Lepakshi	Andhra Pradesh	Vijayanagara-period temple ceiling paintings
Tanjore Brihadeeswarar Temple	Tamil Nadu	Chola-period murals, later overpainted in the Nayak period

SSC has asked about the Ajanta-Bagh pair more than once, usually testing the river name or the state. Remember: Ajanta is on the Waghora, Bagh is on a tributary of the Narmada.

2. Miniature Painting: The Mughal School

Miniature painting means small-format painting, usually on paper, cloth or ivory, meant to be held in the hand or bound into a book (manuscript illustration), not viewed on a wall.

The Mughal school began under Humayun, who brought two Persian master painters, Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad, to his court after his exile in Persia. The school matured fully under Akbar (r. 1556–1605), who set up a large karkhana (workshop) of painters and commissioned illustrated manuscripts such as the Hamzanama (Tale of Amir Hamza), a massive project with over 1,400 large paintings, produced over about 15 years.

Key features of Mughal painting: strong Persian influence blended with Indian colour sense, naturalism in portraiture, and a focus on court scenes, hunting scenes, battle scenes and manuscript illustration. Under Jahangir (r. 1605–1627), the school reached its peak in naturalism, especially in studies of birds, animals and flowers; the leading painter of this period was Ustad Mansur, famous for his studies of the zebra, the turkey-cock and the Siberian crane. Jahangir's court also gave the world its first Indian portrait miniatures of real individuals treated almost like modern portraiture.

Under Shah Jahan, painting became more formal and static, focusing on court ceremony and architecture. Mughal painting declined sharply after Aurangzeb, who discouraged image-making on religious grounds; many court painters migrated out to regional Rajput and Pahari courts, which is exactly how those regional schools absorbed Mughal technique.

3. Miniature Painting: The Rajput (Rajasthani) School

Rajput painting developed in the Hindu courts of Rajasthan from roughly the 16th to 19th centuries. Unlike Mughal painting, its themes are devotional and romantic: Krishna Leela, Ragamala (paintings that visualise musical ragas as moods/scenes), Baramasa (paintings of the twelve months), and court/hunting scenes. Colour is bold and flat, figures are stylised rather than naturalistic, and backgrounds often use plain colour fields.

Rajasthani painting is not one school but several sub-schools, each tied to a princely state:

Sub-school	State/Region	Distinguishing feature
Mewar (Udaipur)	Udaipur	Bold colour, strong devotional Krishna themes; painter Sahibdin notable for Ragamala and Gita Govinda sets
Bundi-Kota	Bundi/Kota	Rich colour, dense foliage, hunting scenes, court life
Kishangarh	Kishangarh	Famous for the Bani Thani portrait by painter Nihal Chand, elongated eyes and features, associated with Radha-Krishna imagery
Marwar (Jodhpur)	Jodhpur	Bold, folk-influenced style, portraits of rulers
Bikaner	Bikaner	Strong Mughal influence due to close Mughal-Bikaner court ties
Malwa	Malwa region	Archaic, flat style, dark backgrounds

Note the Bani Thani painting is often called the "Indian Mona Lisa"; SSC has tested this nickname along with the painter's name (Nihal Chand) and the school (Kishangarh).

4. Pahari Painting

Pahari painting ("of the hills") developed in the sub-Himalayan hill states of present-day Himachal Pradesh and Jammu, from the late 17th to 19th centuries. It has two broad phases/styles:

• Basohli style: bold, vigorous colour, strong primary colours, use of beetle-wing cases to represent jewellery/emeralds, angular figures. Best known for illustrated series of the Rasamanjari and Devi Mahatmya themes.
• Kangra style: developed later (from the mid-18th century), softer and more lyrical, cooler colours, naturalistic landscape backgrounds, delicate line. Its most celebrated subject is the Krishna-Radha love theme, especially illustrations of the Gita Govinda and the Bhagavata Purana. Kangra painting is considered the most refined phase of Pahari art and flourished under the patronage of Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra.

Other named Pahari centres include Guler, Chamba, Mandi and Kullu, each with local variation but broadly falling under the Basohli-to-Kangra stylistic arc.

5. Deccani Painting

Deccani painting developed in the Muslim sultanates of the Deccan plateau: Bijapur (Adil Shahi), Golconda (Qutb Shahi) and Ahmadnagar (Nizam Shahi), roughly from the late 16th to 17th centuries, before the Mughal conquest of the Deccan.

It is distinct from Mughal and Rajput painting: richer, darker, more jewel-toned colour, a strong Persian and even African/Ethiopian (Habshi) influence at Bijapur, and depiction of ideal or imagined beauty rather than strict portraiture. The Bijapur school under Ibrahim Adil Shah II is particularly noted; a famous work is the "Ragamala" tradition adapted at this court and the celebrated single portraits of court women. Golconda painting shows more overt Persian influence given trade links via the Gulf. Deccani style declined once the Deccan sultanates fell to Mughal expansion under Aurangzeb.

6. Folk and Tribal Painting Traditions (State-wise)

These are living, largely rural or tribal painting traditions, many practised by women as part of ritual/domestic decoration, and many now GI-tagged and commercially revived.

Style	State/Region	Key features
Madhubani (Mithila)	Bihar (Mithila region)	Line-and-fill style on walls/paper, done traditionally by women for festivals and weddings; motifs of nature, Hindu deities (especially Krishna, Rama), fish and lotus for fertility; revived commercially from the 1960s after a drought relief effort brought it to paper
Warli	Maharashtra (Thane/Palghar tribal belt)	Monochrome white pigment (rice paste) on mud-red/ochre background; geometric figures (circle, triangle, square) depicting daily/tribal life, harvest, dance; no religious iconography, entirely secular tribal art
Pattachitra	Odisha (also West Bengal as "Patachitra")	Cloth-based scroll painting, Jagannath/Krishna themes, bold outline, natural pigments, closely linked to the Puri Jagannath temple tradition
Gond	Madhya Pradesh (Gond tribal art)	Dot-and-line filled imagery of nature/animals, modern commercial revival credited to artist Jangarh Singh Shyam
Kalamkari	Andhra Pradesh (Srikalahasti and Machilipatnam styles)	Hand-painted or block-printed cotton textile art using natural dyes, mythological themes (temple/Srikalahasti style uses pen/kalam freehand) or Persian-influenced motifs (Machilipatnam style uses blocks)
Tanjore (Thanjavur) painting	Tamil Nadu	Rich colour, gold foil relief work, glass beads/gems inlay, religious icon subjects (Krishna, other deities), dense ornamentation, developed under Maratha rule at Thanjavur
Phad	Rajasthan (Bhilwara/Shahpura)	Long scroll painting depicting folk deities/heroes (Pabuji, Devnarayan), used by Bhopa singer-priests as a portable narrative shrine while performing
Cheriyal scroll	Telangana	Scroll painting depicting epics/folk stories, used with oral storytelling by traveling performers
Pithora	Gujarat/Madhya Pradesh (Rathwa/Bhil tribes)	Ritual wall painting, horse motifs, painted for votive fulfilment, not purely decorative
Manjusha	Bihar (Bhagalpur/Anga region)	Also called "Angika art", linked to the Bishahari (snake goddess) folk cult
Sohrai and Khovar	Jharkhand (Hazaribagh)	Wall art by tribal women, done during harvest (Sohrai) and marriage (Khovar) seasons

Match-the-pair MCQs on this table are extremely common. Learn the style-state pairing cold: it is the single most-tested fact in this chapter.

7. Modern Indian Painting

7.1 Raja Ravi Varma

Raja Ravi Varma (1848–1906), from the princely state of Travancore (Kerala), is often called the father of modern Indian painting. He was the first major Indian artist to blend European academic realism (oil painting, perspective, chiaroscuro) with Indian mythological and historical subjects, painting gods and goddesses (Saraswati, Lakshmi, scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata) in a lifelike, accessible style. He also set up an oleograph (chromolithograph) printing press near Mumbai (Ghatkopar/Malavli) to mass-produce prints of his paintings, which is why his images of Hindu deities became the visual template still used in calendar art today. He received the Kaiser-i-Hind title/medal for his art.

7.2 The Bengal School

The Bengal School of Art arose in the early 20th century as a deliberate swadeshi reaction against both the academic realism of Ravi Varma's style and the dominance of Western art teaching in Indian art schools (notably the Calcutta School of Art). Its founding figure is Abanindranath Tagore (nephew of Rabindranath Tagore), whose most famous painting is Bharat Mata (1905), depicting the nation as a saffron-clad goddess, painted in the wash technique and directly linked to the swadeshi movement.

The Bengal School drew on Mughal and Rajput miniature technique, Ajanta murals, and East Asian (Japanese wash) influence rather than European oil realism, promoted by the British art historian/administrator E. B. Havell, who supported Abanindranath at the Calcutta art school. Other major Bengal School names:

Artist	Contribution
Abanindranath Tagore	Founder; Bharat Mata (1905); developed the wash technique in India
Nandalal Bose	Leading disciple; principal of Kala Bhavana, Santiniketan; designed the illuminated original manuscript of the Indian Constitution's decorative panels along with his team; associated with Haripura Congress session posters (1938)
Gaganendranath Tagore	Cubism-influenced satirical and experimental work
Jamini Roy	Moved away from the Bengal School wash style toward a folk-inspired, Kalighat-pat inspired flat-colour style using Santhal/tribal and Kalighat folk motifs

7.3 Santiniketan and Later Modernists

Rabindranath Tagore founded Santiniketan (Visva-Bharati) in West Bengal, whose art department, Kala Bhavana, became a major centre for modern Indian art training under Nandalal Bose. Tagore himself took up painting late in life and produced expressionist-style works.

Other major modern/contemporary painters worth knowing by name:

Artist	Known for
Amrita Sher-Gil	Hungarian-Indian painter, pioneering modernist, works like Bride's Toilet and Village Scene; often called a pioneer of modern Indian art alongside the Bengal School; received recognition in Paris before working in India
M. F. Husain	Founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group (Bombay, 1947); known for bold figurative work, especially horses
F. N. Souza	Founding member, Progressive Artists' Group
S. H. Raza	Founding member, Progressive Artists' Group; known for the "Bindu" series
K. H. Ara, H. A. Gade, S. K. Bakre	Other founding members of the Progressive Artists' Group

The Progressive Artists' Group, formed in 1947 in Bombay, broke from both the Bengal School's revivalism and colonial academic realism, pushing Indian painting toward international modernism.

8. Painting Institutions and Recognition

• The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), New Delhi, established in 1954, is India's premier museum for modern and contemporary Indian art, with branches in Mumbai and Bengaluru.
• The Lalit Kala Akademi, India's national academy of fine arts (painting, sculpture, graphic art), was set up by the Government of India in 1954 in New Delhi.
• Several painting styles discussed above carry a Geographical Indication (GI) tag, including Madhubani painting (Bihar) and Kalamkari (Andhra Pradesh/Telangana), recognising them as products tied to a specific region.

Quick Revision — One-Line Facts

• Ajanta caves are on the Waghora river in Maharashtra; painting spans a Hinayana phase (2nd century BCE) and a Vakataka-era Mahayana phase (5th century CE).
• The most famous Ajanta painting is the Bodhisattva Padmapani in Cave 1.
• Ajanta was rediscovered in 1819 during a tiger hunt and is a UNESCO site since 1983.
• Bagh caves, Madhya Pradesh, show more secular themes than Ajanta: dancers, musicians, processions.
• Mughal painting began under Humayun with Persian masters Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad.
• The Hamzanama was commissioned under Akbar, with over 1,400 large illustrations.
• Jahangir's court painter Ustad Mansur specialised in natural-history studies (zebra, turkey-cock, Siberian crane).
• Mughal painting declined under Aurangzeb, pushing painters to Rajput and Pahari courts.
• Rajput painting themes are devotional/romantic: Krishna Leela, Ragamala, Baramasa.
• Bani Thani, the "Indian Mona Lisa," was painted by Nihal Chand at the Kishangarh court.
• Sahibdin was a leading painter of the Mewar (Udaipur) school.
• Pahari painting has two main phases: bold Basohli and lyrical Kangra.
• Kangra style flourished under Raja Sansar Chand and focused on Radha-Krishna/Gita Govinda themes.
• Deccani painting developed at Bijapur, Golconda and Ahmadnagar, with strong Persian and African influence at Bijapur under Ibrahim Adil Shah II.
• Madhubani painting comes from the Mithila region of Bihar and is traditionally done by women.
• Warli painting uses white rice-paste pigment on a mud-red background and has no religious iconography.
• Pattachitra is a cloth-scroll painting tradition from Odisha, linked to the Jagannath cult at Puri.
• Kalamkari has two sub-styles: Srikalahasti (freehand pen) and Machilipatnam (block-printed), both from Andhra Pradesh.
• Tanjore painting uses gold foil relief and gem inlay and developed under Maratha rule in Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu.
• Phad painting from Rajasthan is used by Bhopa singer-priests as a portable narrative shrine.
• Raja Ravi Varma, from Travancore, blended European oil-realism technique with Indian mythological subjects.
• Ravi Varma set up an oleograph press to mass-produce prints, creating the template for later Hindu calendar art.
• Abanindranath Tagore founded the Bengal School and painted Bharat Mata in 1905.
• E. B. Havell supported the Bengal School at the Calcutta School of Art.
• Nandalal Bose, a Bengal School artist, illustrated the original Constitution of India's decorative panels.
• Jamini Roy moved from Bengal School wash technique toward flat-colour folk/Kalighat-pat style.
• Amrita Sher-Gil is regarded as a pioneering modernist painter of the early 20th century.
• The Progressive Artists' Group was formed in Bombay in 1947, with members including M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza and S. H. Raza.
• The Lalit Kala Akademi, India's national fine arts academy, was established in 1954 in New Delhi.
• The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) was set up in New Delhi in 1954.

Memory Tables

Table A: Painting Style/School to Home State/Region

Style/School	State/Region
Ajanta murals	Maharashtra
Bagh murals	Madhya Pradesh
Sittanavasal murals	Tamil Nadu
Mughal miniature	Delhi/Agra (Mughal court)
Mewar, Bundi-Kota, Kishangarh, Marwar, Bikaner, Malwa	Rajasthan
Basohli and Kangra (Pahari)	Himachal Pradesh/hill Punjab-J&K belt
Deccani (Bijapur, Golconda, Ahmadnagar)	Deccan (Karnataka/Telangana/Maharashtra region)
Madhubani	Bihar
Warli	Maharashtra
Pattachitra	Odisha
Gond	Madhya Pradesh
Kalamkari	Andhra Pradesh
Tanjore painting	Tamil Nadu
Phad	Rajasthan
Cheriyal scroll	Telangana
Pithora	Gujarat/Madhya Pradesh
Manjusha	Bihar
Sohrai-Khovar	Jharkhand
Bengal School	West Bengal

Table B: Person to Contribution

Person	Contribution
Mir Sayyid Ali, Abdus Samad	Persian painters who founded the Mughal atelier under Humayun
Ustad Mansur	Naturalist painter of birds/animals under Jahangir
Sahibdin	Leading painter of Mewar school
Nihal Chand	Painted Bani Thani at Kishangarh
Ibrahim Adil Shah II	Patron of Bijapur (Deccani) painting
Raja Sansar Chand	Patron of Kangra style Pahari painting
Raja Ravi Varma	Blended European realism with Indian mythology; set up oleograph press
Abanindranath Tagore	Founded Bengal School; painted Bharat Mata (1905)
E. B. Havell	British patron/promoter of the Bengal School
Nandalal Bose	Principal, Kala Bhavana; illustrated the Constitution's panels
Jamini Roy	Folk/Kalighat-pat inspired flat-colour style
Amrita Sher-Gil	Pioneering modernist, Bride's Toilet, Village Scene
M. F. Husain, F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza	Founding members, Progressive Artists' Group (1947)
Jangarh Singh Shyam	Credited with commercial revival of Gond art

Practice MCQs

Q1. The Ajanta caves are located on the banks of which river? (a) Narmada (b) Waghora (c) Godavari (d) Tapti

Q2. Who among the following brought Persian master painters to the Mughal court, laying the base for the Mughal school of painting? (a) Akbar (b) Humayun (c) Jahangir (d) Shah Jahan

Q3. The "Bani Thani" painting, often called the Indian Mona Lisa, belongs to which school of painting? (a) Bundi (b) Kishangarh (c) Mewar (d) Marwar

Q4. Match the painting style with its home state. List I: (A) Madhubani (B) Warli (C) Pattachitra (D) Kalamkari List II: (1) Odisha (2) Andhra Pradesh (3) Bihar (4) Maharashtra (a) A-3, B-4, C-1, D-2 (b) A-1, B-2, C-3, D-4 (c) A-4, B-3, C-2, D-1 (d) A-2, B-1, C-4, D-3

Q5. Which Mughal court painter was famous for his naturalistic studies of birds and animals, including the zebra and the Siberian crane? (a) Abdus Samad (b) Mir Sayyid Ali (c) Ustad Mansur (d) Bishndas

Q6. The Bagh caves, known for early mural painting, are located in which state? (a) Maharashtra (b) Madhya Pradesh (c) Gujarat (d) Rajasthan

Q7. Who founded the Bengal School of Art and painted "Bharat Mata" in 1905? (a) Nandalal Bose (b) Gaganendranath Tagore (c) Abanindranath Tagore (d) Jamini Roy

Q8. The Progressive Artists' Group was formed in 1947 in which city? (a) Calcutta (b) Bombay (c) Madras (d) Delhi

Q9. Warli painting, done traditionally by tribal artists of Maharashtra, is characterised by which of the following? (a) Gold foil relief work (b) White pigment on a mud-red background (c) Natural dye block printing (d) Wash technique with muted colour

Q10. Which of the following painters is associated with the "Bindu" series in modern Indian art? (a) M. F. Husain (b) F. N. Souza (c) S. H. Raza (d) K. H. Ara

Q11. Arrange the following painting-related developments in chronological order.

1. Formation of the Progressive Artists' Group
2. Abanindranath Tagore paints Bharat Mata
3. Rediscovery of the Ajanta caves
4. Establishment of the Lalit Kala Akademi (a) 3, 2, 1, 4 (b) 2, 3, 1, 4 (c) 3, 1, 2, 4 (d) 2, 1, 3, 4

Q12. Which of the following statements about Raja Ravi Varma is correct? (a) He founded the Bengal School of Art (b) He was a founding member of the Progressive Artists' Group (c) He blended European academic realism with Indian mythological subjects and set up an oleograph press (d) He was the court painter of Emperor Akbar

Q13. Which folk painting tradition of Rajasthan is used by Bhopa singer-priests as a portable shrine while narrating stories of folk deities? (a) Pichwai (b) Phad (c) Kalamkari (d) Pattachitra

Q14. Which of the following pairs of painting style and its region is NOT correctly matched? (a) Tanjore painting — Tamil Nadu (b) Cheriyal scroll painting — Telangana (c) Gond painting — Madhya Pradesh (d) Manjusha painting — Odisha

Q15. The Kangra style of Pahari painting, known for its lyrical Radha-Krishna themes, flourished chiefly under the patronage of which ruler? (a) Raja Sansar Chand (b) Raja Balwant Singh (c) Ibrahim Adil Shah II (d) Raja Man Singh

Answer Key

Q	Answer	One-line reason
1	(b)	Ajanta caves lie on the Waghora river in Maharashtra
2	(b)	Humayun brought Mir Sayyid Ali and Abdus Samad from Persia
3	(b)	Bani Thani was painted by Nihal Chand at the Kishangarh court
4	(a)	Madhubani-Bihar, Warli-Maharashtra, Pattachitra-Odisha, Kalamkari-Andhra Pradesh
5	(c)	Ustad Mansur was Jahangir's celebrated naturalist painter
6	(b)	Bagh caves are in Madhya Pradesh, on a Narmada tributary
7	(c)	Abanindranath Tagore founded the Bengal School and painted Bharat Mata
8	(b)	The Progressive Artists' Group was formed in Bombay in 1947
9	(b)	Warli art uses white rice-paste pigment on a mud-red/ochre wall
10	(c)	S. H. Raza is known for his "Bindu" series
11	(a)	Ajanta rediscovery (1819) - Bharat Mata (1905) - Progressive Artists' Group (1947) - Lalit Kala Akademi (1954)
12	(c)	Ravi Varma merged European oil-realism with Indian mythological subjects and ran an oleograph press
13	(b)	Phad scrolls are used by Bhopa priests of Rajasthan as portable shrines
14	(d)	Manjusha (Angika) painting belongs to Bihar, not Odisha
15	(a)	Raja Sansar Chand of Kangra patronised the lyrical Kangra style