History of Indian Art: From Rock Shelters to Miniatures

Prehistoric rock paintings: period and sites

Prehistoric means the time before writing. We learn about it from tools and art.

• Where: natural rock shelters, mostly in central India. The best-known group is Bhimbetka in Madhya Pradesh, with hundreds of painted shelters. Other areas include the Kaimur hills, Mirzapur and parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.
• When: painting went on for thousands of years. Experts often group it in three phases: Upper Palaeolithic (oldest, large animals in green and dark red lines), Mesolithic (the richest phase: hunting, dancing, honey collecting, animals in groups), and Chalcolithic (contact with farming people, pots and copper tools appear).
• Colours: red from geru (iron-rich earth), white from limestone, green and yellow from coloured rocks, ground and mixed with water or animal fat. Brushes were made from plant fibres.
• How we know the order: newer paintings were often painted on top of older ones, like layers.

Indus and Mauryan art

The Indus (Harappan) cities made small objects with great skill: square seals carved with animals such as the bull, painted pottery with black designs on red, clay mother-goddess figures, and a small bronze dancing girl made by lost-wax casting.

The Mauryan empire (about 322–185 BCE) is the next big step. Emperor Ashoka set up tall pillars of Chunar sandstone, rubbed to a glass-like polish, with animals on top. The Lion Capital of Sarnath is the most famous. Large standing figures of yakshas and yakshis (nature spirits), like the Didarganj Yakshi, also show this polish.

Buddhist, Jain and Hindu art; temples, bronzes and later art

• Stupas (domes built over relics) at Sanchi and Bharhut, with carved gateways.
• Kushana age: Buddha images in two styles at once: Gandhara (grey stone, Greek-Roman look) and Mathura (red sandstone, Indian look).
• Gupta age (about 320–550 CE): calm, graceful Buddhas; the Ajanta cave paintings.
• Temples (about 600–1300 CE): Nagara towers in the north, Dravida towers in the south, walls full of sculpture.
• Chola bronzes (about 850–1250 CE): images like Nataraja made by lost-wax casting.
• Indo-Islamic (from about 1200 CE): true arches, domes, minarets, calligraphy and geometric patterns.
• Miniatures (about 1500–1850 CE): small, bright paintings on paper in Mughal, Rajput and Pahari courts.

How to study a work of art

For any work, ask five short questions: What is it (painting, statue, building)? What material? When and where? What does it show? What clue tells the style (polish, red stone, curved tower)?

Try it

Make your own "rock art": mix a pinch of red brick powder or turmeric with a few drops of water and oil. Paint a running animal on a stone or card using a twig or your finger. Notice how hard it is to make thin lines, just like the early painters.

Key formulas and definitions

• Order: Rock art → Indus → Mauryan → Gupta → Temples → Chola bronzes → Indo-Islamic → Miniatures
• Rock art phases: Upper Palaeolithic → Mesolithic → Chalcolithic
• Bhimbetka = most famous rock shelter site (Madhya Pradesh)
• Indus clues: seals, painted pots, bronze dancing girl
• Mauryan clue: Chunar sandstone with glass-like polish
• Kushana: Gandhara (grey, Greek-Roman) and Mathura (red, Indian)

Worked examples

Common mistakes

• Thinking Bhimbetka paintings were all made at one time. They were made over thousands of years, in layers.
• Mixing up Indus and Mauryan art. Indus art is small (seals, pots, tiny bronzes); Mauryan art has large polished stone pillars.
• Believing early colours came from shops. They were made by grinding coloured earth and rocks.
• Treating the timeline as evenly spaced. Rock art is tens of thousands of years older than everything after it.