The Archive
The motif archive.
Andhra Pradesh · 10th Century
Pen-art on cloth. A bamboo stylus, plant dyes, pomegranate, turmeric, indigo, and twenty-three washes between first line and finished cloth. Temple hangings that tell stories from the epics, drawn freehand from memory.
Odisha · 12th Century
Cloth-based scroll painting of Lord Jagannath and Vaishnav mythology. Pigments ground from conch shells, lampblack and indigo, applied within ornate floral borders that frame every story.
Bihar · 7th Century
Mithila floor and wall painting, traditionally made by women on the eve of weddings. Fish for fertility, peacocks for love, the sun and moon for continuity, geometry that carries meaning.
Maharashtra · 2500 BCE
Tribal geometry, circles, triangles, squares in white rice paste on mud walls. Stick figures dance the Tarpa in an unbroken spiral around the fire. Among the oldest surviving art traditions in India.
Madhya Pradesh · Ancient Tribal
Dots and dashes forming animals, trees and spirits. The Gond believe that seeing a good image brings good luck, so they painted their walls, and now their canvases, with living forests.
Rajasthan · 17th Century
Devotional cloth paintings hung behind the deity of Nathdwara. Lotus ponds, sacred cows and monsoon clouds rendered in deep greens and gold, art made as an offering first, decoration second.
West Bengal · 19th Century
Born in the temple lanes of Calcutta, bold, sweeping brush lines and a sharp satirical eye. The patuas painted gods, babus and everyday scandal with equal confidence.
Rajasthan · 14th Century
Thirty-foot horizontal scrolls of the folk deities Pabuji and Devnarayan, carried village to village by Bhopa priest-singers who perform the painting, panel by panel, through the night.
