List of Folk Paintings of India

With its traditional arts and crafts, India has always been renowned as the place that embodied traditional and cultural vibrancy. The 35 states and union territories (UTs) that make up the United States each have their unique traditional and cultural identities. They are displayed through multiple forms of art prevalent there. In India, every region has its own pattern and style of art, which is called folk art.

Aside from folk art, there is a type of traditional art known as tribal art that is practised by many rural or tribal communities. The Indian folk and tribal arts or the Indian traditional paintings are more simple and ethnic, and yet vibrant and colorful enough to speak volumes about the rich heritage of the country.

About Folk and Tribal Art

Due to its historic aesthetic authenticity and sensibility, folk art appears to have a lot of potential in the worldwide market in India. Indian rural folk paintings or simply the Indian traditional paintings are known for their vibrant colours and mystical and religious themes. The following are a selection of India's most well-known folk paintings:

• Patachitra paintings from the state of Odisha,

• Madhubani paintings of Bihar,

• Andhra Pradesh’s Nirmal paintings, including some other such folk art forms.

Folk art, on the other hand, is not limited to Indian folk art paintings; it also encompasses other creative forms such as house decorations, pottery, cloth-making, ornaments, and more. In reality, because of their traditional and ethnic beauty, the potteries of a few Indian districts are highly famous among foreign tourists and are said as Indian traditional art paintings.

Furthermore, the Indian regional dances, such as the Dandiya of Gujarat, the Bhangra dance of Punjab, the Bihu dance of Assam, and more, project the cultural heritage of that region are prominent contenders in the Indian folk art field. People conduct these folk dances to show their joy at many occasions and events, such as the birth of a child, the change of seasons, festivals, weddings, and other celebrations. As a result, the Indian government, as well as other organisations and institutions, have made every effort to encourage art forms that have become inextricably linked to India's cultural identity.

Lets us look at the types of Indian paintings.

Folk Paintings of India

Passing down from one generation to another, Indian folk art is still alive in several parts of the nation. Being distinct and culturally diverse, a diversity of art forms have evolved over the years, a few untouched by modernization, a few adapting to new materials and paint colors. Every depicts religious epics or Goddesses and Gods mostly, but all of these are admirable, unique and inimitable in their own might. They were once fashioned with natural colours and dyes made from mud, earth, charcoal, and leaves, and were painted on cloth or canvas, giving them a sense of history and nostalgia.

Let us look at the most famous Indian folk art painting forms that are still practiced in the select parts of the country:

Let us discuss about the types of Indian paintings, which are also called historical paintings of India.

Madhubani

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Madhubani, also known as Mithila art, is a Nepalese and Biharese art form that began in the kingdom of Janak (in the Ramayana, the father of Sita). It is the most popular Indian folk art, which is mostly practiced by women who wanted to be one with God. This art form was not known to the outside world, characterized by geometric patterns, until the British discovered it after an earthquake that revealed broken houses during the 1930s with Madhubani paintings. According to William G. Archer, it mirrored the work of Miro and Picasso. The majority of these wall murals or paintings depict gods, fauna and flora.

Miniature Paintings

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Miniatures are characterized based on their miniature size. But the intricate acute expressions and details. Originating from the Mughal era, around the 16th century, Miniatures are influenced by Persian styles and are flourished under Akbar and Shah Jahan’s rule. Later, it was adopted by Rajputs. But, now, popularly practiced in Rajasthan. As with the other art forms, these paintings depict religious epics and symbols. They stand out with a pointed nose and a slim waist; humans are portrayed with large eyes and men are always seen with a turban.

Phad

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The above picture depicts a tale about Pabuji.

Originating from Rajasthan, Phad is one of the historical paintings of India and primarily a religious form of scroll painting, which depicts the folk Devnarayan or deities Pabuji. The 15 or 30- feet-long cloth or canvas, which it is painted on, is known as phad. Vegetable colors and also a running narrative of the lives and the heroic deeds of deities mostly characterize these paintings.

Warli

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In 2500 BCE, it originated from Warli tribes - the Western Ghats of India easily; this is one of the oldest Indian art forms paintings. It mostly consists of the use of triangles, circles, and squares to create a variety of shapes and reflect everyday activities such as hunting, fishing, dancing, festivals, and so on. What makes it apart is - the human shape - two triangles and a circle. All these paintings are done on a dark or red ochre background, while the shapes are in white color.

Gond

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The Gondi tribe in Madhya Pradesh - MP created these brilliant and bold colourful paintings, mostly representing fauna and flora, and were characterised by a sense of belonging to nature. The colors come from cow dung, charcoal, colored soil and leaves. If you look closely into it, it is made up of lines and dots. Now, these Indian painting styles or the traditional Indian painting styles are very imitated and painting with acrylic paints. It's known as evolution in the Gond art form paintings, and it's led by Jangarh Singh Shyam, the most well-known Gond artist, who revitalised the art form for the rest of the world in the 1960s.

Kalamkari

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Literally means - ‘drawings with a pen,’ (traditional Indian art drawings) Kalamkari is comprised of two different types of painting in India: 

• Machilipatnam - originates from Machilipatnam in Andhra Pradesh

• Srikalahasti - originates from Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh itself.

The former is known as block-printed art, while the latter is defined as free-flowing art on fabric created with a pen. Kalamkari art, which depicts everything from fauna and flora to epics like the Ramayana and Mahabharata, may now be found on ethnic clothing and sarees.

Tanjore

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Thanjavur or Tanjore paintings, which emerged in 1600 AD and were supported by the Nayakas of Thanjavur, are from the south. You can recognize the Thanjavur painting with its use of gold foil that lends and glitters the surreal look painting. On wooden planks, these panel paintings depict devotion to gods, saints and goddesses. It borrows the Indian painting styles from Maratha and Deccani art and European styles as well.

Cheriyal Scrolls

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Originating from the current-days Telangana, this dying Indian art forms painting is practiced only by the Nakashi family. It's been handed down through the centuries. The Cheriyal scrolls are a considerably more stylized variant of Nakashi art, influenced by the Kalamkari art tradition and long scrolls.

Depicting epics and Puranas, these 40-45 feet scrolls were an important visual accompaniment as the saints wandered about narrating or singing the epics. They resemble the modern-day comic panels, with around 50 on a single scroll. In contrast to the typical formality of Mysore or Tanjore paintings, they use primary colours and lively imagination.

Kalighat Paintings

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Kalighat is a freshly found painting style that originated in Bengal in the 19th century. It was a moment when revolting against the British seemed like a good idea. At first, these paintings, on pattas and cloth, depicted Gods and Goddesses. But then they took a turn towards social reform. With cheap paint colors and paper, squirrel color pigments and hairbrushes, the art was characterized by brushwork, flawless strokes and simple, yet bold drawings (the traditional Indian art drawings).

It aimed to increase public awareness about social problems by showing rich zamindars drinking alcohol with ladies, clergymen with ‘unchaste' women, and police babus looking sloppy.

Patachitra

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These angular and crisp, bold lines depict Gods and Goddesses and epics in a cloth-based scroll painting from West Bengal and Odisha. Since there was no acknowledged distinction between a sculptor and an artist back then, it began in the 5th century in religious cities like Konark and Puri, about the same time that sculpturing began.

The distinctive feature of this art genre is that the dress style represented in the paintings has a strong effect on the Mughal era.