Indian Traditional art Tanjore, Mysore, Madhubani, Mithila, Kalamkari, Warli Painting

Indian Traditional art Tanjore, Mysore, Madhubani, Mithila, Kalamkari, Warli Painting

What are Traditional Arts?

Traditional arts are learned person to person, passed from generation to the next, and influenced by culture, family, ethnicity, and era.
Examples of traditional music are folk music, old-time, bluegrass, Cajun, French Canadian, Great Lakes, Celtic, Tribal, swing, Tejano, and western music.The dance might include clogging, Cajun, Celtic, step dance, folk dance, squares, contras, and the schottische. Puppetry and storytelling are examples of traditional performance art. Crafts cover a wide range — from the stone building to pottery, basket making, Quilling, beadwork, wood carving and more.

Traditional Indian art

The history of Indian painting dates back to the era of Ajanta, Ellora and other murals. Other famous examples are Buddhist palm leaf manuscripts, the Jain texts and the Deccan, Mughal and Kangra schools. Indian painting is a portrayal of tradition and depiction of ancient texts and theories in color and anecdotal accounts. It was common during the ancient times have paintings in households in the doorways or indoor rooms where guests resided. 

Cave painting is another example, we can refer to know further about Indian paintings. The paintings of Ajanta, Bagh and Sittanvasal and temple paintings testify to a love of naturalism. From the early civilization to the present day the paintings provide an aesthetic continuum. Various traditions that have existed in the country have helped in the evolution of paintings in India.

Miniature paintings are those executed on a very small scale on perishable material such as paper, cloth, etc., though this style had been perfected by artisans under the various rules, not many remain today. Prime examples are the Rajasthani & Mughal miniatures.
Contemporary artists have kept up with the times & excel in their modern works, giving free expression to their imagination & artistic liberty.

Tanjore Painting

Tanjore

It was during the Chola period Thanjavur rose in its status as a significant contributor to the socio-economic and cultural development of the country. The mastery over craft and the excellence in engineering knowledge acquired by the Tanjore craft persons are amply demonstrated by those imposing and towering temple structures. Tanjore Art is basically iconic. Figures of Hindu gods and goddesses are the normal themes. Siva, Parvati, Rama, Krishna, Lakshmi, Saraswathi and other gods and goddesses in different forms are depicted in this art form. If the depiction represents an event in the Hindu mythology, the main figure is supported with smaller figures as demanded by the theme.

Mysore Painting

Raja Woodeyar(1578-1617 AD) is traced to have made some significant contribution to the cause of artists in the different parts of the erstwhile state of Mysore. He had even built two temples; one at Srirangapatna and the other at Ganjam for Nimishambav Devi, a deity worshipped by the artist community.

In the earlier days, sketching was made with charcoal prepared by burning tamarind twigs in an iron tube. Colours made out of minerals were prepared by grinding the minerals in a stone mortar and then put in water to make them soft in form of a paste. Brushes were made of different materials, which included squirrel, camel and goat hair. Sometimes grass blades were also used for making sharp lines. Today, commercially available water and poster colors are used with brushes of different grade available in the market. Once the sketch is made, the gesso work is taken up in the area earmarked.



Gesso work is normally done where embellishments are to be made. Design work is carried out on the mandapams, the pieces of jewellery, the attire,  etc., with a specially prepared compound and a brush. On the completion of the work, after the compound dries, gold foils are placed over them and stuck firmly. Painting is subsequently done. After the painting is completed and it dries, a thin paper is placed on top of it and rubbed softly with a smooth, soft stone to bring the richness in the relief work done with gold foil.

Madhubani - Mithila - The Painting of Bihar

Perhaps the best known genres of Indian folk paintings are the Mithila (also called Madhubani) paintings from the Mithila region of Bihar state. For centuries the women of Mithila have decorated the walls of their houses with intricate, linear designs on the occasion of marriages and other ceremonies, Painting is a key part of the education of Mithila women, culminating in the painting of the walls of the kohbar, or nuptial chamber on the occasion of a wedding. The kohbar ghar paintings are based on mythological, folk themes and tantric symbolism, though the central theme is invariably love and fertility.

The contemporary art of mithila painting was born in the early 1960’, following the terrible Bihar famine. The women of Mithila were encouraged to apply their painting skills to paper as a means of supplementing their meager incomes. Once applied to a portable and thus more visible medium, the skills of the Mithila women were quickly recognized. The work was enthusiastically bought by tourists and folk art collectors alike. As with the wall paintings, these individual works are still painted with natural plant and mineral-derived colors, using bamboo twigs in lieu of brush or pen.

Source
It is believed that King Janaka had asked for paintings to be developed for his daughter Sita's wedding.
Cotton wrapped around a bamboo stick forms the brush. The colours applied are prepared by the artists.  Black colour is obtained by mixing soot with cow dung; yellow from turmeric or pollen or lime and the milk of banyan leaves; blue from indigo; red from the kusam flower juice or red sandalwood; green from the leaves of the wood apple tree; white from rice powder; orange from palasha flowers.

The colours are applied flat with no shading. There is normally a double line drawn for the outlines, with the gap between the lines filled with cross or straight tiny lines. In the linear painting, no colors are applied. Only the outlines are drawn.

Rajput Painting

Paintings from the royal courts of Rajputana

Rajput painting, a style of Indian painting, evolved and flourished, during the 18th century, in the royal courts of Rajputana, India. Each Rajput kingdom evolved a distinct style, but with certain common features. Rajput paintings depict a number of themes, events of epics like the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, Krishna's life, beautiful landscapes, and humans.

The colors extracted from certain minerals, plant sources, conch shells, and were even derived by processing precious stones, gold and silver were used. The preparation of desired colors was a lengthy process, sometimes taking weeks. Brushes used to be very fine.

Kalamkari Paintings

Paintings from Kalahasti

Kalamkari literally means, Kalam - pen & kari - work, i.e., the artwork was done using a pen.  Vegetable dyes are used to color the designs applied on cloth.  The art of painting using organic dyes on the cloth was popular in several parts of India, but this style of Kalamkari flourished at Kalahasti (80 miles north of Chennai) and at Masulipatnam (200 miles east of Hyderabad).

Owing to Muslim rule in Golconda, the Masulipatnam Kalamkari was influenced by Persian motifs & designs, widely adapted to suit their taste. The outlines and main features are done using hand carved blocks. The finer details are later done using the pen.
The Kalahasti tradition which developed in the temple region,  mostly concentrated on themes from Hindu mythology, epics (Ramayana, Mahabharatha), images of Gods and heroes.

The artists use a bamboo or date palm stick pointed at one end with a bundle of fine hair attached to this pointed end to serve as the brush or pen.

The dyes are obtained by extracting colors , form part of plants - roots, leaves along with mineral salts of iron, tin, copper, alum, etc., which are used as mordants.

PAINTINGS FROM INDIAN FOLK

Folk art painting has been an integral part of Indian civilization and Indian Folk Painting continues to be a living tradition. Colorful designs, invariably tinged with mystic belief are found in rural folk paintings. They reveal the traditional aesthetic sensibility of the Indian village.

The Madhubani paintings of Bihar, the Pata paintings of West Bengal and the Nirmal paintings of Andhra Pradesh are only a few from the vast gallery of Indian folk paintings. Epics, puranas, the Krishna-lila (the antics of Lord Krishna) etc., are their main sources of inspiration. Gods and goddesses are depicted in all possible forms and actions, and are painted in varieties of technique and color.

Warli Painting

PAINTINGS FROM WARLI

Warli painting, one of the most intriguing forms of Indian folk paintings. Warli paintings come from the Indian state of Maharashtra. A traditional Warli painting depicts a normal work day in the life of the Warli tribals.

A Warli painting contains all the events of the past, the stillness of the present and the possibilities of the future within it. Its greatest attraction is its lack of pretentiousness in conveying the profound: it is done through simple folk symbols drawn with bold, easy strokes and uncluttered with none but the most minimal colors since none is needed to draw attention to their message.