Indian Painting

Taunggyi is a hill town in the southern Shan State, Myanmar. The Taunggyi town plan was firstly laid out in 1892 and designated as a town on September 15, 1894 after annexation of British. Taunggyi was appeared by relocating a British fort from the old town of Mong Thauk, east of Inle Lake in Nyaungshwe.

Active in Bengal in the early 12th century, most likely a monk working in a monastery. The Mahavihara Master is known from the illustrations in one palm-leaf manuscript, a royal commissioned edition of the Ashtasahasrika Prajnaparamita Sutra, shared between the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and the Tibet Museum, Lhasa. They can be ranked as the finest extant series of 12th-century paintings known and provide some understanding of the great mural painting tradition of medieval eastern India, which is lost to us. The atelier tradition to which this master belongs is of seminal importance in the history of Indian painting, bridging as it does the pan-Indian Ajanta style of the first millennium and the subsequent schools of painting which inherited the chromatic and linear qualities evident in later Hindu and Jain dev otional paintings, and in Sultanate secular painting.

Статья посвящена девяти индийским миниатюрам из собрания Государственного музея Востока (Москва). Рассматриваемые работы были определены как миниатюры, входившие в серии рагамала; в некоторых случаях удалось уточнить также время и регион их создания. Рагамала — уникальное явление средневековой живописи Индостана, подразумевающее визуализацию такого сложного явления индийской классической музыки, как рага. /

The article is devoted to nine Indian miniatures from the collection of the State Museum of Oriental Art (Moscow). The aim of this study is to provide an academic description of these items, and to clarify their attributions. The author identifies these sheets as miniatures of Ragamala series; in some cases it was also possible to clarify the time and place of their creation. Ragamala is a unique phenomenon of medieval painting of Hindustan, representing a visualisation of Indian musical modes.

With contributions by: William K. Ehrenfeld (Introduction, pp.13-15); Joachim K. Bautze (India and the West: The Interaction of Artists, pp.16-20); J.P. Losty (The Place of Company Painting in Indian Art, pp.21-27); Toby Falk (The Indian Artist as Assimilator of Western Styles, pp.28-32) and Partha Mitter (The Raj, Indian Artists, and Western Art, pp.33-37).

From the very earliest times, a range of stylistic possibilities was open to Indian painters. Divine Visions, Earthly Pleasures highlights many appealing styles and trends found in this rich tradition. The Indian artist constantly plays with various, even conflicting approaches, such as realism and abstraction, often within a single work. Perhaps confusing at first, upon closer inspection this layering of artistic conventions can be subtle and sophisticated. The play of line and color, sometimes strikingly juxtaposed, illustrates a virtuosity not often found in other artistic traditions. The Indian artist uses a variety of conventions to create space, as well, often employing a number of different visual points of view in a single work. The architecture can recede into space in one part of a painting and appear as flat, two-dimensional space in another.

'architetto Giacomo Mutti , scomparso nel 2013, era un grande appassionato dell'India ed un profondo conoscitore delle sue arti la cui idea di collezionismo era strettamente legata al desiderio di diffondere e trasmettere la millenaria cultura del subcontinente. Negli anni riuscì a raccogliere sapientemente numerosi oggetti di diversa provenienza e manifattura capaci di farci riflettere sulla vastità della produzione artistica indiana e sulla sua complessità. Il presente saggio, diviso in tre sezioni, vuole dapprima rendere omaggio all'architetto, un caro amico, per poi soffermarsi brevemente sulle mostre della sua preziosa ed L 1 L'autrice desidera ringraziare tutti coloro che hanno contribuito a questo saggio. Un grazie particolare a Filippo Mutti per la sua disponibilità e ospitalità a Brescia, Vanna Scolari per il suo invito a scrivere questo contributo, Robert Skelton e Joachim Bautze per aver discusso alcuni particolari della , Giampietro Massella per avermi fatto pervenire alcuni materiali scritti da Giacomo Mutti, Bruno Cavallaro per i suoi suggerimenti sulla prima bozza di questo articolo, Elisabetta Bresciani per alcune informazioni inerenti alle mostre della Collezione Mutti, Laura Giuliano e Giovanna Iacono per il loro incoraggiamento. Tutte le foto in questo articolo sono di Filippo Mutti.

Arpana Caur is one of India's most eminent visual artists, whose paintings for decades have shaped national discourse and national consciousness about the lives of Sikhs and women, spirituality, and the environment. This article situates the artwork of Arpana Caur within national and global contexts through topics such as the nature of the aesthetic process for Caur, the relations among affect, activism, and politics in her life and work, and the ways in which Indian art can be supported and made more visible on the Indian and global scales. The article presents the artist's views--the longest and most in-depth she has given to date--on topics central to her work, including Sikhism, Buddhism, Kabir, feminism, human rights, environmentalism, and the nature of time. This piece explores how art can represent the timelessness of spirituality alongside the exigencies of contemporary issues and tragedies, such as communal violence. Central throughout this article is the concept of nation, exploring how an artist can represent nation both aesthetically and politically, and the ways in which nation can be both attractive and challenging.

It has long since been established that the modern children's game of snakes and ladders originated from the Indian game of gyān caupaṛ (game of knowledge), but it has rarely been asked how gyān caupaṛ itself originated, and what exactly constitutes it. The present thesis tells the story of gyān caupaṛ based on nearly 150 unique and mostly unpublished game charts and several little explored secondary sources. The majority of the game charts derive from Vaiṣṇava and Jaina communities in 19th-century western India, though a few reach back to the late 18th century. The thesis argues that the charts developed from tantric drawings of the subtle body used for purposes of meditation and visualization, and only later acquired the properties of a formal game system. Other influences can be traced back to the 12th-century Chinese game of xuanfo tu (table of Buddha selection) and the 15th-century Italian game of gioco dell'oca (game of the goose), but gyān caupaṛ itself does not appear to have been invented before the late 17th or early 18th century. The game charts consist of a sequentially numbered and inscribed grid diagram overlaid with snakes and ladders forming connections between individual squares. The representational value of the charts changes according to the world-views of the different religious communities in which they appear, but they all share a common concern with questions of cosmography, karma, and religious practice. The design is remarkable for its close integration of game mechanics and theme, and while it is possible to reconstruct the rules by which the game was played, little can be said about the uses to which it may have been put beyond that of mere play. Plausible suggestions include education, divination, and self-exploration, but, as evidenced by the later history of the game, such uses have long since fallen away, leaving only the innocent fun of a purely abstract game system.

This is the second edition of earlier title of the same name (2013). The subtitle has been changed here a little. The book contains:

* Colour photographs of 70 Ajanta narrative paintings.
* * 84 abridged Buddhist legends.
* Elementary introduction to the Ajanta paintings.
* Information based on the current research.
* A window to deeper studies.
* References to the scholarly works that first identified the nearest textual sources of the painted legends.

of Bengal 1813-23. There are in all 25 albums of drawings, by Indian, Chinese and British artists. They have been for the last 150 years in the collections of the Marquis of Bute, and indeed hitherto unknown and unsuspected by historians of South Asian art. Francis Rawdon (1754-1826), second Earl of Moira, afterwards first Marquess of Hastings, after a distinguished military career in America, and a political career at home when he became closely involved with the Prince Regent, was sent to India as Governor-General of Bengal (in effect the ruler of British India) and Commander-in-Chief from 1813 to 1823. Hastings pursued a vigorous foreign policy, considerably extending the frontiers of British India. During his period occurred the war with Nepal of 1814-16, the successful conclusion of which earned him his Marquessate at the end of 1816, and the campaigns of 1817-18 which extended British power into central and western India. His last years of office were clouded by the scandal of the Palmer banking house in Hyderabad and disputes with the Court of Directors at home. Hastings was accompanied to India by his wife Lady Flora Hastings, and their young children. Hastings and his wife patronised British artists such as George Chinnery and the amateur artist Charles D'Oyly, but their patronage of Indian artists has not previously been known. The albums and indeed all Hastings' private papers, also recently discovered, passed into Bute hands through the marriage in 1845 of Hastings' younger daughter Lady Sophia to the second Marquis of Bute, and it was she who in 1858 edited and published her father's journal of the years 1814 to 1818.

This article investigates the trend in Indian modern art focused on the search for national identity in Indian traditional art. The early work of the Delhi artist Jagdish Swaminathan (1928-1994) and its connection with Tantric visual culture, a tradition spread throughout Indian subcontinent together with the Vaishnava and Shiva directions of Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism since the 5th century AD, is considered. The inseparable connection of this tradition with bodily practices (meditation and yoga) and special ideas about the human and divine body, common to Indian religious and philosophical thought, specify the concept of corporeality, making it possible to reveal the features of a Tantric body reflected on the structure of a sacral objectyantraas interpreted by Swaminathan. The paper considers the image of yantra, intrinsic to the theoretical and practical doctrines of salvation (tantras). J. Swaminathan's creative and theoretical program and its reflection in his early series "Color geometry of space" (1967) are analyzed. The research reveals how the artist reinterprets pictorial representation of European art, with the help of Tantra and its space and body concepts creating his own version of modernism, based on Indian artistic traditions and the specific symbolism of religious mysticism.

This is only an excerpt from my book on Orchha, on Bundela architecture from 17th century AD. The book provides and extensive discussion about its history, literature, specially painting. The murals of the Orchha palaces are a glory of late medieval Rajput style paintings. The Orchha city is still retains its pristine city plan, water body, bridges, chhattris (mausoleums), gardens, walls, hunting lodges, despite being a popular tourist and pilgrimage spot. The book, out of print now, awaits a revised edition.

Idealized sexuality is a prominent theme in the poetry and paintings of Rasikapriyā.  It’s author Keśavadāsa uses this subject as means for illuminating his theory on the concept of love underlined with the religious philosophy of Vaiṣṇavism. Keśavadāsa emphasizes on śṛṅgāra rasa, the erotic sentiment based on the emotion of love, as the prime rasa of Rasikapriyā. Through the aid of theory of śṛṅgāra rasa he brings to forefront discussions on sexuality. He identifies Kṛṣṇa as the romantic hero, the nāyaka – the god who is also a lover. And he builds an index of three hundred and sixty nāyikās, representing female sexuality in almost all its aspects.

The concept of love in Rasikapriyā can be understood in three categories – firstly as the poetic theory of śṛṅgāra rasa, which is an aesthetic experience; secondly as kamaśāstra i.e. the knowledge of the arts of lovemaking; and thirdly as devotional bhakti philosophy, which is a spiritual experience. Keśavadāsa blends these three aspects of love into a beautiful rendition in his poetry. Through these aspects Keśavadāsa provides a symbolic expression to an idealized realm of a loving relationship between the idealized nāyaka and nāyikā. Keśavadāsa portrays them not only as youthful, handsome and renouncing, but more importantly adept in the arts of lovemaking, emphasizing their sexuality.

What Rasikapriyā represents has the vividness or convincing quality of appearing to belong to reality, though not imitatively reproducing the actual world of experience or theory. This symbolism when translated into the Rājput miniature paintings, presents a plethora of images with a vivid visual portrayal of love and sexuality. They render the poetry of Rasikapriyā into a visual medium, which transform nature into an ideal imaginary world expressing a deep-rooted philosophy of Vaiṣṇavism. Their art metaphorically renders the ideas of bhakti, which stresses upon the realization of the pure element of consciousness i.e. the self in a man. This process is about experiencing human-life in its fullest extent and engaging in a passionate and ceaseless love for the Lord, which is as pure and obsessive as natural love between two humans.

No paintings definitely associated with the Murshidabad court can be identified before the latter part of the reign of Nawab 'Alivardi Khan (r. 1740-56). A few portraits suggest through their subject matter that a court style derived from the imperial Delhi style was in existence from about 1750. After a brief flowering of only twenty years, the court style collapsed in the absence of traditional patronage and Murshidabad artists had to learn a new style influenced by the English picturesque movement for their new patrons, the British, in Murshidabad itself and in Kolkata. 1

Politically this period of Indian history is dominated by three historic shifts. The first is the rapid decline of the Mughal empire under the battering of successive waves of attack, both external and internal. The three great provinces of Bengal, Avadh in and Hyderabad effectively became independent under hereditary rulers. The second is the rise of the Hindu Marathas from the Deccan, a warrior confederacy which had unsuccessfully challenged the might of Aurangzeb earlier but which now proved strong enough to exert its power throughout India. Rajasthan, Gujarat and the central provinces were abandoned by the Mughals to the Marathas, whose annual raids north were allied to an imperial system based on tribute. Had their political acumen been the equal of their martial prowess, the third great shift might not have happened. This was the advance of the East India Company from its coastal trading stations to the possession of half of India, which with the ending of the Mysore and Maratha wars offered effective resistance only in the Punjab.

The monograph contains 15 Buddhist legends painted on the walls of Ajanta Cave No. 1 of the late fifth centry CE. Each episode -- of each of the 14/15 painted narratives of Cave 1 -- is arranged here in the same way as the painters painted them.

It is a kind of catalogue showing each narrative scene by scene, episode by episode.

The monograph covers 14 of the total 15 narrative paintings of Cave 1. It has at least one photo of every episode of 14 narratives painted on the walls of the caves. The corpus is based on the latest research by Dieter Schlingloff.

There is also an abridged re-telling of the 15 Buddhist legends. The text of the stories are reproduced from the author's earlier works.

The nearest textual sources of the narratives are given in a table in the end of the book. The table is a preface to the bibliography of ancient texts or Buddhist scriptures in Pali, Sanskrit, Chinese, Tibetan, and Mongolian. The bibliography seeks to provides in brief relevant details about the ancient manuscripts, archives, repositories, critical editions, translations, or analytical works.