Rajasthan- The word conjures visions of the desert, a long tradition of valour and bravery, the land of heroic men and breathtakingly beautiful women. Their culture and lifestyle has for centuries been harmoniously juxtaposed against the bleak and serene surroundings.

It is against this backdrop that a vibrant tradition of miniature painting has flourished. The Rajputs, the warrior people of Rajasthan had for centuries resided in this land and over time, founded various kingdoms each with a verdant cultural framework. The kingdoms rivalled one another for supremacy in the arts, and resulting from this cultural chauvinism a high degree of sophistication was achieved.

The royal houses had patronised different schools of miniature painting, almost every princely state and town developed its individual school, style and group of artisans practising a different version of the miniature art form. In the recent years we have come to recognise a distinct evolution from the last quarter of the 16th century to mid 17th and early 18th century not only in the arts and crafts of this colourful land but also the emergence in the sub schools of miniature painting. Possessed of a rich inner spirit, Rajasthani painting embodies all that is beautiful and divine. It is made manifest through sensuous imagery. There is a union between the manifest and the intangible. The significant schools include Kishangarh, Bundi, Kotah, Mewar and Marwar. Of these, the kingdom of Mewar distinguished itself by creating a superlative vocabulary in miniature paintings.

The Jain miniatures of manuscripts from the 13th to 15th centuries (like the texts of Kalpasutra and Kalakacharya katha) gave impetus to the development of the miniatures of Mewar. Linearity, sharp and angular contours and the faces in profiles, showing both eyes, were the trademarks of this key atelier. The elemental colour palette consisted mostly of blacks, blues, greens, yellows and a little bit of red. The Mewari painters skilfully applied pure pigments and effervescent colours to articulate the human, animal, vegetative and floral forms in minute details, while the landscape was so painted as to combine in seamless harmony with the figures. The figures were formally arranged against the shallow background. Ornamental trees with large stylised leaves, formed the backdrop to the narratives unfolding in the foreground of the paintings.

Themes drew from Sanskrit texts or verse such as Ragamala (Garland of Melodies), Nayika bheda (the traditional classification of lovers), Jayadeva’s 12th century Gita Govinda and Krishna Leela (Krishna stories), while the epics the Ramayana and the Mahabharata continued to be popular themes. The ecstatic dalliances of Krishna and the gopis was a popular subject. The Krishna Leela depictions came to be known for their passionate nature and amorous themes. The Gita Govinda, also developed as a series, and the miniature became a lyrical symbol with swaying lotuses, meandering streams and trees in bloom symbolic of the tender passions of lovers. It is perhaps only in the Indian subcontinent where the humble act of the stringing together of wild flowers can be turned into a divine offering and the act of the divine can be felt in the love play of the “nayak”(hero) and the “nayika” (heroine). Such is the level of abstraction, which transcends boundaries and mediums. Where art is a way of life - dance, music, drama and art traverse between the sacred and the profane.

In the Ragamala (Garland of Melodies) series one sees a pictorial representation of ragas (melodies) and each develops its own iconography, and the form of the ragini (female personification of the raga) develops in the miniature tradition. The miniaturist doesn’t solely paint but bears the onus of intellectual and aesthetic reflection and the translation of his meditation into form via linear perspective within a pictorial frame. His concern is for the poetic and aesthetic. The pictorial frame no longer remains as a mere background or a foreground but is integrated as the celestial and the earthly space thus creating an entirely unique viewpoint. This is also evidenced in the treatment of the flora and fauna, trees, lotuses, animals, clouds, all of which have symbolic import.

The end of the 13th century marked a turning point in the stylistic development of the Mewar school, when its miniature artists were invited to Delhi by the early sultans. This endeavour brought about a blend in the Indian and Persian, which later culminated in the Mughal miniature school of painting. The soothing colours characteristic of Mughal miniatures was a consequence of this synthesis of the two styles.

The end of the 16th century saw the Mewar School entered yet another phase of evolution. The themes started to shift and they depicted the life and customs of the rulers as well as the subjects of Mewar. The technique achieved a high degree of sophistication and an intricate style was adopted using the finest brushes made from squirrel hair; sometimes a single-hair was used to achieve the minimum of details.

The Mewari painting reached a high level of sophistication under Jagat Singh. Important texts were copied and lavishly illustrated, several being produced by Jagat Singh's master painter Sahibdin and his workshop. One of the most splendid manuscripts produced by this atelier is a seven volume illustrated Ramayana, an exemplary work of the vibrant and uniquely Mewari visual vocabulary.

For a long time miniature art had been misread as either lacking pictorial quality, maturity in its compositional treatment, or being interpreted as a wholly decorative representation of historical and religious epics and tales. Contemporarily miniature art has become a concern for many historians, scholars, artists and connoisseurs as a symbol embodying the aesthetic, poetic and pictorial concerns. In miniature paintings, the linkage between the work of art and the beholder was considered to be akin to that of a connoisseur appreciating the lilting melodies of a raga in the Indian Classical tradition of music. When the viewer’s eye is sensitive and trained to perceive miniature art in a purely aesthetic manner, the works appear to be astonishingly contemporary, both in their composition and their high degree of abstraction and symbolism. With several narratives unfolding within a single frame, there was no definitive delineation of foreground and background, a riot of colours in peerless harmony, the Mewar miniatures stand as ageless and timeless masterpieces of Indian art.

Indian miniature painting is a 'visual chamber music' to be savoured slowly, intently and privately. 'Miniature' generally refers to a painting or illumination, small in size meticulous in detail and delicate in brushwork. The paintings are intimate where viewing is infinitely more personal. The extraordinary richness of detail and wealth of narrative invited careful and thoughtful exploration.

The art of palm-leaf illuminations were traditionally labelled patra-lekhana in medieval Indian canons. But later a generalised term pata chitra was conveniently used to define other kinds of painting than wall painting and included painted scrolls and panels. The works were visually tuned almost like a ‘passage of music’.

The first dated palm leaf manuscript the Pragyaparamita is ascribed through a dated colophon to 1190 AD. Palm leaf was replaced by paper as a preferred surface by the late 12th and early 13th century.

Every region in India had its own distinctive style in the miniature tradition which flourished in every corner of the country i.e. Pahari, Rajasthani, Deccani and the Mughal schools. Depending on the area the themes changed as the Indian miniature painting provided a compelling and beautiful record of the cultural traditions of the area.

Indian miniature paintings have their own unique voice and stand as one of the world’s greatest artistic traditions.