Time Period
- The art of miniature painting developed between the 8th and 12th centuries CE.
Major Schools
- Pala School of Art
- Found as a part of manuscripts.
- Generally executed on palm leaf or vellum paper.
- Main centres – Nalanda, Odantapuri,Vikramsila and Somarupa
- Features
- Sinuous lines and subdued tones of the background imagery.
- There are lonely single figures in the paintings and one rarely finds group paintings.
- They have simple compositions
- Pala paintings show a naturalistic style
- The proponents of the Vajrayana School of Buddhism also used and patronised these paintings.
- The prominent painters were Dhimman and Vitapala
- One of the finest examples is the manuscript of the Astasahasrika Prajnaparamita.
- Apabhramsa School of Art
- This school traces its origin to Gujarat and Mewar region in Rajasthan in between 11th to 15th century CE.
- Main themes are related to Jainism and Vaishnavism, and secular love.
- In the early Jain phase, the paintings were made on Palm leaf but in the later period of Vaishnavism they were made on paper.
- The colours used in the paintings had symbolic meaning and they usually used red, yellow and ochre. In the later phase, they used bright and gold colours.
- Other features
- Human figures depicted in the paintings have fishshaped bulging eyes, a pointed nose and a double chin.
- Humans with angular faces in the third and fourth profile.
- The figures are usually stiff and even the ornamentation is carefully done.
- The female figurines have enlarged hips and breasts.
- The animal and bird figurines in the paintings are represented as toys.
- For Example – Example of Kalpasutra and the Kalakacharya Katha from 15th century.