From early petroglyphs to a flourishing contemporary art scene, India’s vibrant artistic legacy is the result of a variety of cultural influences. The diversity of art from this area—which includes anything created in the historical regions of modern-day India, Bangladesh, and areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan—is reflected in vivid, distinct, and enchanting styles that represent many different civilizations.
The culture and art of India is one of the most richest sources of various artistic traditions and styles. Indian art encompasses Buddhist murals in the Ajanta caves, to illuminated manuscripts, to the large frescoes, to the miniaturist tradition of Mughals. Because some of the world’s major religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam either began or flourished in India, much of Indian art is based in religious or political subject matter. Hinduism was a main focus of Indian art for centuries but by the 16th century, Islam gained importance under the Mughal Empire and art production grew under Islamic rulers.
Painting Style in India
Each style of painting that emerged in India represented traditions, customs, and ideologies passed down from previous generations. Though early paintings existed on walls or as murals, the art form was eventually transferred to more modern materials such as paper, canvas, cloth, and other mediums.
There is no one style of painting in India. Geography, climate, local cultural traditions, demographics all help to shape art along regional lines. Also, outside artistic influences are more strongly felt in border regions. Not surprisingly therefore, Indian painting is a complex patchwork of differing styles, with different approaches to both figure drawing and figure painting.
Illuminated Manuscripts
The oldest manuscripts, like the Pali Manuscripts (11th-12th Century) were executed on palm leaves, long and narrow in format and kept together by threads running through the pages, the whole bound between two pieces of wood. The illustration was restricted to a small frame in which one or two figures are outlined in a narrow, angular fashion, against a red background. The composition is simple and usually includes a god (Buddha) surrounded by pupils, or their female alter ego (shakti); the latter sometimes take pride of place in the paintings.
From the 14th century the introduction of paper modified the format of the manuscripts. They became larger, and as greater space was devoted to illustration the painter was able to add more detail to his work, including decoration, architectural elements and plants. The drawing was even more stylized and complex and lost none of its extraordinary precision. Friezes edge the pages as well as the texts, with various motifs such as animals, flowers and arabesques, which hint at the influence of Persian art from the west.
The Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire extended far and wide throughout much of the Indian-subcontinent, and during the golden age, art flourished. The empire covered 3.2 million square kilometers, with over 150 million people (one-quarter of the earth’s population at the time). Art was a cultural practice revered by the Mughal court, most of the art secular in composition, based on an illustrated folk-art style of painting.
Mughal painting
Mughal painting is a miniaturist style of Indian painting, typically executed to illustrate texts and manuscripts. These small works were initially found on palm leaves, painted for merchants who carried them throughout their travels across the subcontinent. This art form emerged and flourished in the sixteenth-nineteenth centuries, and became increasingly important throughout the Mughal and Rajput courts. Miniature paintings were highly detailed and intricate, drawing from Persian techniques. Themes ranged from religious and historical scenes to depictions of everyday life.
In fact, Mughal pictures were a blend of Indian and Islamic art. One of the key patrons of Mughal painting was Akbar (1556-1605). During his reign, European art began to influence the painting of the Mughal dynasty. At Fatehpur Sikri, he employed the two Persian master painters Abdus Samad and Mir Sayyid Ali, who taught the Indians the techniques of Iranian miniature painting.
As Mughal-derived painting spread to Hindu courts the texts illustrated included the Hindu epics including the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; themes with animal fables; individual portraits; and paintings on scores of different themes. Indian painters were able to introduce naturalistic ideas to the purely decorative art of the Persians. The flora of Persia, the shrubs, the slender cypresses, gradually gave way to the rich vegetation of India, painted over large surfaces, the leaves arranged so as to leave no empty gaps.
Subject of Painting: Animal and Plants
Under Prince Jahangir’s reign, a popular subject area was realistic studies of animals and plants, mostly flowers. Early animal imagery consists of variations on a theme, rather than new, innovative observations. The illustration in a picture was spread out, eliminating detail with a flatter, aerial perspective using more subdued colors. Artists made lavish collections of paintings with calligraphy, decorative borders, and gilding, assembling them into a manuscript format. Paintings from this era were formal portraits and scenes of the court rather than the personal subject matters of the previous leader. Mughal painting was usually a court art, supported by the ruling class.
Painters
Ustad Mansur was a court artist and painter who excelled in his depiction of plants and animals, known for his natural history illustrations. He was one of the first artists to illustrate the Dodo in color, as well as the Siberian crane. The dodo bird was scarce, and Mansur’s work provided a detailed source for zoologists of the time. Mansur painted at least one hundred flowers that grew in the Kashmir Valley, the Red Tulip, and an example of one of the flowers. He documented many of the birds of the area and incorporated plants and insects in the background of his illustrations. Mansur added floral borders to his work, which became a characteristic of the Mughal empire
Dodo 
Tulip
Farrukh Beg (1545 – 1615) first worked in central Asia, then joined the service of the Mughal emperor in the late 16th century. His early paintings were Persian style, and he continued throughout his career to be a conservative painter, staying with a style he always knew. He painted in bright colors, illustrating big plants and drapery as part of his art. Babur Receives a Courtier is a scene at court, each set of participants formed in the same perspective, giving the illustration the flat appearance. Historians consider the painting one of the best from the Mughal empire.
Illustrative Traditions Before The 1800s 