Indian Paintings – Principles and Pre-Historic Paintings

Paintings in India had a very rich past. The paintings in India are a source of expression from the ancient times. Archeologist found several evidences of wall paintings, belonged to ancient and medieval times of Indian history. With the evolution of time, the art of paintings also evolved in India, from wall painting art to miniature paintings, this art form continuously saw developments with time.

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Principles of Paintings

Vatsyayana in his book ‘Kamasutra’ mentioned the six main principles of the paintings. These principles included; Bhava (creation of luster and gleam with the colors), Pramanam (proportion of the likeliness of the subject), Rupabheda (variety of form), Varnikabhanga (mixing of colors to resemble the effects of modelling), Sadrisyan (portrayal of likeliness of the subject) and Lavanyayoganam (immersions of emotions).

Apart from these principles there are also different styles of paintings; Chauka Pitaka (isolated framed drawings), Dighala Pitaka (long scrolls of paintings) and Yama Pitaka (isolated paintings).

Pre-Historic Paintings

The first painting of the pre-historic period was discovered from the Bhimbetka caves in Madhya Pradesh. These were generally executed on rocks and these rocks engravings are called Petroglyphs. These paintings are generally depicted the animals like bison, elephant, rhinoceros, cattle, snake etc. The pre-historic phase of paintings is divided into three periods; Upper Paleolithic, Mesolithic and Chalcolithic period.

Upper Paleolithic Period (c. 40,000 – c. 10,000 BC)

Peoples of this period used minerals for pigment because the rock shelters were made of quartzite and ochre (geru) mixing with lime and water was the main material used. They used different material to make colors like red, white, yellow etc. They used red color mostly for human figurine (hunter) and green color mostly for dancers.

Mesolithic Period (c. 10,000 – c. 4,000 BC)

During the Mesolithic period, the size of paintings become smaller as compare to earlier period. This period saw the maximum use of red color. The group hunting scenes was the most common theme of this period. Other scenes also depicted the grazing and riding activities.  

Chalcolithic Period

The most common theme of this period was of battle scenes. This period saw increase in the number of paintings using the green and yellow color. For example, there are many paintings showing men riding horses and elephants. These paintings also depicting the men carrying bow and arrow which is the indication of some kind of preparedness for skirmishes.

Bhimbetka Rock Paintings, Madhya Pradesh

The oldest painting believed to be 30,000 years old discovered deep inside the Bhimbetka caves. The paintings also show the continuity in the occupancy of the caves from 100,000 BC to 1000 AD as many paintings being painted on top of another. Most of the paintings of Bhimbetka are belonged to Mesolithic period but paintings also belonged to Paleolithic and Chalcolithic as well.    

Paintings in Later Pre-historic Age

Many cave sites have paintings and sample writing belonged to Ashokan and Brahmi scripts. The other set of paintings of this period are at Narsinghgarh in Madhya Pradesh. They have paintings to show skins of spotted deer left for dying that provides credence to the theory that the art of tanning skins was perfected by man for providing shelter and clothing. Some paintings belong to period of around 1000 BCE are founded from Jogimara caves in Chhattisgarh. Some other paintings of the same theme also discovered from the districts of Sarguja, Durg etc.

Thus, the pre-historic paintings are important source for understanding the social life of that period.