Enrichment: Additional Schools, Techniques, and Modern Detail

8.1 Technique of Ajanta-Style Painting

• The technique involved preparing the rock surface with a rough layer of clay/cow-dung/rice-husk plaster, followed by a fine lime-wash surface, onto which pigments (derived from minerals and plants — ochre, lamp-black, lime-white, terre-verte, and lapis-lazuli-derived blue in some cases) were applied while the surface was still workable, then burnished — technically closer to secco/tempera painting than true fresco (which requires pigment applied to wet plaster and chemically bonding as it dries), though the term "fresco" is loosely and conventionally used for Ajanta in general reference works.

8.2 Additional Miniature Painting Detail

• Malwa School (a Central Indian Rajput sub-style): Known for flat, boldly coloured backgrounds (often black or dark) and stylised, folk-influenced figures, somewhat more archaic in feel than Mewar or Bundi work.
• Sikh School of painting: Developed in the Punjab Hills and plains region in the 18th–19th centuries, particularly under Maharaja Ranjit Singh's patronage, often blending Pahari (Kangra-influenced) stylistic elements with Sikh religious/court subject matter (portraits of the Gurus, courtly scenes).
• Tanjore (Thanjavur) Painting: A distinctive South Indian style (from around the 16th–18th century, flourishing under Maratha rule of Thanjavur) characterised by rich colours, gold-leaf relief work, and glass-bead/gem embellishment, typically depicting Hindu deities (especially Krishna) in a flat, iconic, devotional style — still practised today as a recognisable decorative art form.

8.3 The Progressive Artists' Group — Additional Members and Context

• Formed in the immediate aftermath of independence and partition (1947), reflecting a deliberate generational break from both colonial-academic realism and the earlier Bengal School's revivalist nationalism, seeking instead an internationally engaged modernist idiom rooted in but not confined to Indian subject matter.
• Sadanand Bakre and H.A. Gade were also founding members alongside Husain, Souza, Raza, Padamsee, and Ara.
• The group dissolved formally by the early 1950s as members pursued increasingly individual international careers (Souza and Raza settling in Europe for extended periods), but its influence on the trajectory of Indian modern art is considered foundational and long-lasting.

8.4 Contemporary Indian Art Market and Institutions

• The National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), with its main branch in Delhi (and branches in Mumbai and Bangalore), is India's principal public institution for modern and contemporary Indian art.
• Indian modern and contemporary art (works by Husain, Raza, Tyeb Mehta, and others) has, since the 2000s, achieved record prices at international auction houses, reflecting growing global recognition — a datapoint sometimes referenced in general knowledge/current-affairs-adjacent questions about Indian art's market standing.
• Lalit Kala Akademi (National Academy of Art, established 1954) is the government body responsible for promoting visual arts in India, running its own National Exhibition of Art and awards, paralleling the roles of the Sahitya Akademi (literature) and Sangeet Natak Akademi (music/dance/drama).

8.5 Table: Painting Schools by Region and Period