A History of Indian Painting - Manuscript, Moghul and Deccani Traditions

About A History of Indian Painting - Manuscript, Moghul and Deccani Traditions

The layman can be won over to art, and win for himself a realm of fine experience, if he is not pushed but by punditry or patronised by cliche- ridden copy-writing that reveals its shallowness straightaway, It would be inexcusable if all the relevant research data are not taken into ac- count; but the layman will not be won over if they are not melted into a fluent stream of narration which should, further, continuously reflect the images of beauty the work is supposed to discuss This was the ideal kept in mind in the first volume of this work which dealt with the tradition of mural painting in India. Its encouraging re- ception has led to the present sequel, which takes up the story with the descent of painting from the mural surface to the miniature. This volume takes the reader through Pala painting which con- served in miniature radiant Ajantan memories, the radiation of the new miniature tradition along the vast length of the Himalayas from Ladakh to Bhutan, the reappearance of the second generation mural derived from the miniature, the emergence of the medieval manner with its piquant regional variations, the splendid star- burst of Moghul painting, the origin and evolution of painting in the Deccan with its more complex heredity.