Canons of painting and the manuscript tradition

Indian painting has old rules, or canons. The Chitrasutra, a chapter in the third part (Khanda) of the Vishnudharmottara Purana, a text of about the fifth century, is a source book of Indian painting. It explains techniques, tools, materials, perspective, and the limbs of painting.

The six limbs (angas) of painting:

• roopbheda: the appearance of things;
• pramana: measurement and proportion;
• bhava: expression (feeling);
• lavanya yojana: aesthetic composition, arranging things beautifully;
• sadrishya: resemblance to the real thing;
• varnikabhanga: the use of brush and colours.

Medieval Indian paintings are called miniatures because they are small. They were held in the hand and looked at closely, not hung on walls (walls had murals painted directly on them).

Many were manuscript illustrations, painted in sets of loose pages (folios) on one theme: the Ramayana, the Bhagavata Purana, the Gita Govinda, the Ragamala. The text was written in a box at the top, or on the back. Each set was wrapped in cloth and kept in the patron's library.

The colophon page, at the end, gave the names of the patron, artist and scribe, with the date and place. When it is lost, scholars date the set by its style. Paintings also travelled: as dowries, gifts, trade goods, and with pilgrims and traders.