Indian Miniature Paintings: A History

By Google Arts & Culture

Parul Singh

Folio Folio (ca. 1090)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The earliest extant miniature paintings from the Indian Subcontinent date from the 9th-10th Centuries A.D. These paintings are wooden covers of different Buddhist texts now lost to us. 

The wooden covers of a Buddhist manuscript from Gilgit, Kashmir (9th century A.D.) or a superb 10th century Nepalese cover now in the National Museum, New Delhi...

Folio Folio (early 12th century)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

...which depicts the story of Prince Vessantara ‘s demonstration of exemplary charity - the giving away of his children - are two rare early examples of what has been termed as the Pala style painting, associated with Eastern regions of Indian Subcontinent under the Pala rulers in the 8th to 12th  centuries.

Eleven Folios and Two Covers from Various Jain Manuscripts Eleven Folios and Two Covers from Various Jain ManuscriptsLos Angeles County Museum of Art

Other early survivors date from the 10th-11th centuries and these are almost exclusively devoted to the illustration of Buddhist and Jain manuscripts, the Buddhist manuscripts almost exclusively in the Pala style with the Jain ones largely associated with the Western Indian miniature style. 

The two religions, however did not have a monopoly of the styles as a couple of Hindu religious manuscripts have survived in both Pala and Western Indian Miniature painting styles.

Vajrayana Deities (top), Buddhist Goddess Shyama Tara (Green Tara) (middle), Vajrayana Deities (bottom), Folios from a Prajnaparamita (The Perfection of Wisdom) (circa 1150-1200) by UnknownLos Angeles County Museum of Art

Inscribed and painted on prepared long and narrow palm-leaves, these manuscripts are bound with cords passing through holes in the folios. The folios are encased in wooden covers for protection that are often decorated with religious or historical themes. 

While these early extant paintings do have visual nuances and stylistic variations, in the Pala Style or the Western Indian miniature style, they share a common ancestry being part of a Pan Indian Style; a set of common aesthetic concerns and expressive languages that strive to generate powerful emotions through their imagery and literary allusion.

This Pan-Indian Style encapsulates the painted plaster cave interiors of the Buddhist rock cut sanctuaries of Ajanta, made in the 5th and 6th centuries, to the fragmentary murals surviving in the 8th century Kailashanatha in Kanchipuram made by the Pallava rulers, or paintings at Sigiriya in Sri Lanka.

Kalpasūtra (MS Add.1765) (15th-16th century) by BhadrabāhuCambridge University Library


In early history, sacred books acquired the status of objects of veneration; these illustrated manuscripts became parts of rituals where they were deposited as relics in the foundations of Buddhist Stupas, and worshipped as embodiments of divine wisdom (Jnanapuja). 

During the annual Jain Paryushana festival, celebrated during the rainy season, worshippers seek to gain merit from momentarily holding the Kalpasutra, the Jain holy book, while wealthier members of the community bid for the privilege of the sacred text being worshipped in their houses. On the last day of the festival, the illustrated pages of the manuscript are held darshan, a holy viewing.

Vajrayana Deities (top), Buddhist Goddess Shyama Tara (Green Tara) (middle), Vajrayana Deities (bottom), Folios from a Prajnaparamita (The Perfection of Wisdom) (circa 1150-1200) by UnknownLos Angeles County Museum of Art

Buddhist illustrated manuscripts survive in pitifully few numbers as vast resources of Buddhist knowledge were destroyed by Muslim iconoclasts in the early 13th century AD, who wiped out the monasteries of Bihar (Nalanda, Vikramshila, Odantapuri), and Bengal, (Somapur, Salban and Tamralipti). 

All the surviving works from the Pala period, whether cloth paintings or palm leaf manuscripts, are known to us by the safe refuge provided to them in the Buddhist monasteries in Nepal and Tibet.

Manuscript covers Manuscript covers (11th–12th century)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

 By the 13th century, the Pala style of painting completely disappeared from the Indian landscape, its stylistic remnants survived in visual vocabularies of Nepal and Tibet, and these flourishing centres of Buddhist monastic learning came to be engaged in a vibrant dialogue with each other.

Neminatha Renounces the World, Folio from a Kalpasutra (Book of Sacred Precepts) (1475-1500) by UnknownLos Angeles County Museum of Art

Painting continued to flourish in Western India and the Deccan, largely serving the needs of the Jaina community and occasionally some Hindu patrons. The Jaina Jnana Bhandaras,  (“Storehouses of Knowledge”) attached to the temple complexes continued to serve as custodians to the vast holdings of Illustrated manuscripts of Jain religious and spiritual knowledge.

The patrons were mainly Svetambara Jains, who considered the commissioning of illustrated books and their donation to Jain temple libraries to be an important merit-making activity.

The major centres of manuscript production that used the Western Indian miniature painting style were located in western parts of India - Ahmedabad and Patan in Gujarat. Other minor centres flourished in Jaisalmer, Gwalior and Delhi.

Mahavira Gives Away His Belongings, Folio from a Kalpasutra (Book of Sacred Precepts) (1475-1500) by UnknownLos Angeles County Museum of Art


After the introduction of paper into western India from around the 12th century, Jain texts gradually adopted this new and more versatile medium, and by the 14th century the use of paper for illustrated manuscripts became common. 

Paper enabled the painting of larger compositions and a greater variety of decorative devices and borders, although the memory of the earlier palm leaf manuscript lingered on. 


Artists continued to cite the long and narrow horizontal format of the palm leaf format, and also persisted in painting circular spaces in the design in the folio where the binding holes had earlier pierced through the palm leaf folio.

Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (d.1325); Nizamuddin Awliya with three attendants (ca. 1450 or earlier)Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

Growing commercial contacts with the Mamluks of Egypt and Timurid Iran in the late 14th century and first half of the 15th century, led to dramatic changes in the embellishment of the illustrations. 

Circulation of richly gilded manuscripts from these areas as well as luxury objects such as carpets, textiles and metalware, led to the incorporation of certain motifs within the visual landscape of the Indian Subcontinent.

By the 15th century, illustrations became free from the narrow confines of the palm leaf format, gained height due to the use of paper and came to be extended to the entire folio, usually running parallel to the text above, the style however continued to echo the archaic conventions of depiction of the human figures with their angular bodies and unique rendering of the ‘further eye’ (the eye floating in air), strong use of linear silhouette, flat fields of intense colour.

Folio Folio (1520–30)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The enhanced scale of the paintings allowed for extensive border embellishments, influenced by Persian motifs such as cartouches and the more familiar motif of the flowering vines widely used in Sultanate architecture and textile designs. 

Paintings became more sumptuous, scintillatingly adorned with gold and silver and a new brilliant ultramarine blue, (the result of the greater availability of Lapis Lazuli), and a brighter hue of crimson that came to be produced from a local lac during this period.

By 1500, painting styles in India flowered into different styles, triggered by centres around Delhi, Bengal and Mandu, Sultanate kingdoms of North India, and Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda in the Sultanate states in the Deccan.

The Sultanate courts patronised painting styles informed by court ateliers of Persia or Afghanistan, these however were provoked and intensified by Indian artists trained in Hindu and Jain traditions. The amalgamations of these stylistic tendencies of diverse traditions served as a catalyst for a profusion of styles beginning the early 16th century.

One surviving manuscript, the Nimatnama, (Book of Delights) c 1495-1505, created for the rulers of Mandu (begun during Sultan Ghiyath ud Din Khilji and continued under his son Nasir Ud Din Khalji), drew upon the Persian style of Shiraz. 

The artists visualised the ruler, his court and his harem in Shirazi style landscapes with high viewpoints rendered in soft shades of pale pinks and blues and mild greens but placed them within Mandu style architecture.

While the faces of Persian ladies and the ruler himself were shown in either three-quarter view or the frontal view, citing Persian painting traditions, Indian women in indigenous attire were depicted in strict profile.

Iskandar at the Kaaba, Page from a Manuscript of the Khamsa (Quintet) of Nizami (Iskandarnama or "Book of Alexander") (circa 1485-1495) by UnknownLos Angeles County Museum of Art


Diverse and selective mixings of styles were undertaken in the many regional courts. A copy of Nizami’s Iskandarnama produced at the Gaur court at Bengal for Sultan Nusrat Shah (1531) now in the British Library, depicts figures painted with the Persianate three-quarter view. 

These however are depicted against a backdrop of bright mosaic like architecture, made in the style of Bengal, the clouds are multi-coloured and the skies flash in a brilliant gold.

This image is from Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Chanda talking to a Friend (Sultanate Period; 1525-1575 CE)Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS)

The same text could be rendered in diverse styles - a case in point is the Candayana, a romance written in Awadhi, or eastern dialect of Hindi by Maulana Daud in 1389. 

One extant copy of the text now in the Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS), Mumbai, is illustrated in a Persiante manner similar to the Nimatnama, with figures in profile standing in front a decorative background of sprinkling flowers with curving horizon or set against a schematic architecture. 

Folio from a Khamsa (Quintet) by Amir Khusraw Dihlavi (d.1325); Nizamuddin Awliya with three attendants (ca. 1450 or earlier)Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

Seen here is a Persianate style Candayana folio from Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery.


Another illustrated rendition of the Candayana is in the Early Rajput style, its folios now divided among the Lahore and Chandigarh Museums, is derived from the Western Indian Miniature painting style but also show influence of the Sultanate style. The faces remain in strict profile, but the further eye of Western Indian Miniature style has been dropped, the torso rotates towards the viewer, and the lower body follows the profile view of the face, in the same direction. the eyes are larger and expressive, the backdrops stylistically rendered without any depth include schematic architecture, rendered in flat and bright colours. 

In the manner of the traditional Indian format, however, the composition remains wider rather than higher, unlike the preferred format of the Sultanate styles where the folios are higher rather than wider.

The Sleeping Shatrajit Murdered by Satadhanva, from a Bhagavata Purana (ca. 1520)Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

This Early Rajput Style is preserved in other illustrated manuscripts as well and seems to have flourished in a wide geographical area across North India in 16th century India. 

An edition of the Chaurapanchasika (Fifty Verses of a Love Thief), most of whose folios are in the M C Mehta Collection at Ahmedabad, The Bhagavata Purana, a Hindu text a copy of which was made in the region of Delhi, c. 1520, or a Devi Mahatmya made in the Punjab Hills, now in the Simla Museum, share elements of this Early Rajput style.


The origins of this style may have occurred in the courts of Raja Man Singh Tomar (1486- 1517) or Rana Sanga of Mewar (1509- 1527). 

This Early Rajput Style subdivided into various idioms in the 17th century with various regions incorporating greater or lesser degrees of Mughal Influence in their painting styles.

Ajaib-al-Makhluqat (1569/1570) by unknownNational Museum - New Delhi

In the mid 16th century in the Deccan, miniature painting flourished under the Sultanate kingdoms of Golconda, Bijapur and Ahmadnagar. The court of Golconda patronised paintings with close affinities to the Persian styles at Shiraz, Tabriz, Herat and Bukhara. 

The neighbouring states of Ahmadnagar and Bijapur, were also influenced by Persian styles, but the art forms produced in their ateliers showed a greater blending of the Persian styles with Indigenous styles. The Ahmednagar court painting stylistically borrowed from the erstwhile Vijaynagar Empire which it had defeated, as well as elements of the Early Rajput style of the North.

Ragini Patahansika (1590/1595)National Museum - New Delhi

During the time when the Deccani Sultans were commissioning voluminous manuscripts, such as the Bijapuri Encyclopedic manuscript, Nujum ul Ulum, (The Stars of the Sciences) in 1570, 

Now in The Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, or an earlier illustrated manuscript, Tarikh i Husayn Shahi, (c. 1565) a chronicle on the victory over the mighty Vijayanagara Empire by the combined armies of the five Deccani Sultanates of Ahmednagar, Bijapur, Berar, Bidar and Golconda, with its focus being on its patron, the ruler of Ahmednagar, Sultan Husayn Shah; in the north, the young Mughal emperor Akbar, began a series of campaigns to engulf various kingdoms into his empire – Malwa, in 1562, various Rajput states (1561-1569), Gujarat (1572-73) and Bengal in 1576.


His conquest over Malwa and the Rajput states gave him access to some of the most flourishing centres of Indigenous culture, where the erstwhile rulers had given lavish patronage to artists, dancers and musicians, and skilled singers, dancers and artists were brought from these regions to undertake monumental building at Fatehpur Sikri, to sing at his court or were incorporated in his painting atelier.


Akbar’s father Humayaun, had had a chequered rule. After he ascended to the throne of Delhi, upon the death of his father Babur, in 1526, he was ousted by the resourceful Afghan leader, Sher Shah Suri, and the vast dominions that encompassed Jaunpur, Punjab, regions of Afghanistan and Central Asia were lost to him. 

He took refuge at the court of Shah Tahmasp at Persia, and when he recovered Kabul in 1545, with the Shah’s help, he brought with him master artists Abd Al Samad and Mir Sayyid Ali, who had earlier worked in Shah Tahmasp’s atelier, and set up a small studio at Kabul, where the artists continued painting in the Persian style of Shah Tahmasp’s atelier at Tabriz. Humayun brought these artists to Delhi after he had required it in 1555, but died just six months after, in an accident while descending the stairs of his library.

Seen here: Humayun’s Tomb, New Delhi

The Parrot Addresses Khojasta from the Tutinama (ca. 1565-1570)Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

The task to establish and give direction to the painting studio was left to his worthy son Akbar who undertook the task with gusto. One of the earliest manuscripts whose folios have been painted in his studio, is a copy of a fable, the Tutinama (1565-70), with most of its folios now preserved at the Cleveland Museum

Believed to have procured from the sack of Mandu, the capital of the kingdom of Malwa, around half of its folios originally painted in the Mandu style of the Mumbai CSMVS Candayana had been overpainted by Akbari artists. Clearly, Akbar demanded a new stylistic vision, and his atelier complied, forging a distinct and unique style that amalgamated Persian, Central Asian, Indian, and later, European elements.

The prophet Elijah rescuing Hamza's nephew, Prince Nur ad-Dahr, a painting in gouache on cotton (1564/1579)British Museum

Hundreds of artists worked for Akbar, coming from diverse geographical areas with their unique stylistic sensibilities. His atelier included Persians as well as Indian Muslims and Hindus, and they were fostered and guided by the revered Persian artists Mir Sayyid Ali and Abd Al Samad, whom Humayun had brought to India. 

A collaborative process of painting where many artists worked on a single painting helped to foster the development of a distinct Mughal style - as evident in the illustrations of the Hamzanama, an apocryphal tale of the adventures of Amir Hamza, an uncle of the prophet that had delighted the young Akbar. The monumental work originally ran into twelve volumes and had 1400 illustrations, which took several artists around two decades to illustrate (1562-1577).

The figures in the Hamzanama are depicted more naturalistically than the Tutinama - they are rendered as three dimensional people with their bodies and faces modelled to express volume, their bodies engaged in poses and actions that appear realistic as they interact with one another in a more assertive landscape.

Rama Chastises the Dying Vali, Folio from a Ramayana (Adventures of Rama) (circa 1595) by UnknownLos Angeles County Museum of Art

Akbar’s atelier produced hundreds of volumes of illustrated manuscripts on a range of subjects - romances, fables and adventures, translations of important Sankrit literature and Hindu epics such as the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, historical chronicles and works of poetry and literature.

Inspired by the Mughal atelier, a more provincial version of the imperial court style painting flourished in the studios of many Muslim and Hindu courtiers. These paintings termed ‘Sub Imperial’ or ‘Provincial Mughal’ by scholars featured elements derived from contemporary Mughal style, but could not match the quality and finish of the imperial studio.

Manohar (attributed to), Emperor Jahangir weighing his son Khurram in gold, an album-painting in gouache on paper (1615/1615)British Museum

Even before his advent to the throne, the Mughal emperor Jahangir (r. 1605-1627),  when he was prince, had established his own studio. Impatient to ascend the throne, he rebelled against his father, Akbar, set up his court at Allahabad which he had captured, and patronised a few of the greatest artists of Akbari studio here. 

Jahangir had strong artistic tastes, and preferred commissioning a single painter to work on a painting rather than encourage the collaborative method of Akbar’s period.


He patronised carefully observed plant and animal studies, realistic and psychologically penetrating portraiture and Europeanized subjects. These exquisite paintings were mounted onto pages with sumptuous decorative borders and then bound into albums covered by gilded or stamped lacquered leather.

Jahangir’s son, Shah Jahan, who succeeded him to the throne (r. 1628–58), is most celebrated for his architectural achievements, with the Taj Mahal, a mausoleum built for his wife after her death in 1631, his best known accomplishment.

Click and drag to explore around the Taj Mahal, located in Agra, India. This is a special view from one of its minars.

"The Battle of Shahbarghan", Folio from a Padshahnama (Chronicle of the Emperor) "The Battle of Shahbarghan", Folio from a Padshahnama (Chronicle of the Emperor) (17th century)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Paintings from his reign are characterized by a certain cold formal and static tendency but are nonetheless exquisitely rendered. Unlike the freely drawn landscapes and floral studies of Jahangir’s reign, portraits, courtly scenes, and flower studies commissioned by Shah Jahan are stiffer, mannered and have formally balanced compositions. 

The major commission of his reign was the historical chronicle about his reign, the Padshahnama. Illustrated through the 1640s, a magnificent copy now in Windsor Castle, London.

Emperor Aurangzeb in a Shaft of Light with later floral border from The St. Petersburg Album (ca. 1660, borders mid-18th c.) by Artist: Attributed to Hunhar, Borders: Muhammad Baqir, Borders: Muhammad-Hadi, Calligrapher: Imad al-HasaniSmithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art


Shah Jahan’s rule was abruptly terminated by his son Aurangzeb in 1658, who imprisoned his father. Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) held orthodox Sunni beliefs, and his reign saw the decline of Mughal patronage of the arts. 

His period also witnessed the beginning of an erosion of geographical boundaries of the Mughal empire, with many regional governors breaking away under his successors.

Emperor Shah Alam Bahadur (Bahadur Shah I, r. 1707-1712) when he was Prince Muhammad Muazzam (circa 1675) by UnknownLos Angeles County Museum of Art

The emperors who followed Aurangzeb had to deal with the depleting authority and power of the state and became unfortunate puppets of wily intrigues at court. The quick succession in which they were replaced left them no time to support the production of sumptuous paintings and books as done by their predecessors. 

Under the emperors Bahadur Shah (r. 1707–12)...

Mohammed Shah ontvangt Qamar-ud-din Khan (1736) by anoniemRijksmuseum

...and Muhammad Shah (r. 1719–48), there was a slight resurgence in the arts, but the Mughal capital at Delhi was decimated in the raid by the Persian adventurer Nadir Shah, in 1739 and caused much of the city’s population to flee and the artistic community thereafter permanently dispersed to find patronage in many regional courts of the Subcontinent.

Zulaykha bidding for Yusuf (Mid 18th Century) by UnknownNational Museum - New Delhi

Painting at the Rajput courts such as Bikaner, Bundi, Kota and Kishangarh, and at the provincial Muslim courts of, Murshidabad, Faizabad, Farrukhabad and Lucknow, blossomed...

Razamnama by UnknownNational Museum - New Delhi


...as Mughal artists provided fresh inspiration. By the 1800s, the Mughals were only nominally the emperors of India, with the British East India Company in actual political control.

Shah Alam by UnknownNational Museum - New Delhi

Painting at Delhi in the 1800s, however, lingered on, incorporating stylistic influences by European art, dictated by the tastes of Europeans, largely the East India Company officials who patronised a few artists; these artists worked for the fading Mughal court as well, and influence of European painting can be seen in the works commissioned by the Mughal emperors. 

The art of the 19th century, at Delhi and other regional courts across the Indian Subcontinent came to increasingly assimilate the type of realism approved of by European art of the nineteenth century, it was however interpreted by Indian artists trained in diverse artistic traditions.

Page Page (ca. 1610)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Mughal empire dominated both the political and cultural landscape of much of the subcontinent for almost two centuries 16th to the 18th. The many small regional kingdoms adopted or responded to the art of the Mughals to carve out their own unique and distinct artistic identities.

Folio Folio (ca. 1690–95) by RuknuddinThe Metropolitan Museum of Art

Contacts and alliance with the Mughal court inspired many Rajput states at Bundi, Kota, Amber (later Jaipur), Bikaner, Jaisalmer to retain their own workshops. 

The earliest paintings produced at these regional centres date to the last years of the sixteenth to the early years of the seventeenth centuries, and they adopted some conventions of the Mughal painting but retained much of the flavour of their indigenous styles.

Folio Folio (mid-17th century)The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Their adoption of Mughal stylistic elements varied according to the tastes and the proclivity of their rulers towards Mughal styles. 

Courts such as Bundi adopted early on the Mughalised conventions, as evident in a set of Ragamala paintings made at Chunar, near the city of Benaras. Dated 1591, these paintings were made by artists trained in the atelier of Akbar, and influenced subsequent Ragamala sets painted at Bundi and Kota. 


Here is Bundi example, from a Ragamala series.

Painting Painting (ca. 1800) by Sahib RamThe Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the first half of the seventeenth century, the rulers at Amber and Bikaner, too, keenly took to patronising Mughal style paintings. 

Raja Hari Singh with waterpipe and attendants, gouache on paper (1770/1770)British Museum

The court of Mewar, however, after briefly flirting with Mughal elements, found in an early Ragamala by Sahibdin (1628), shrugged off the Mughal style, and a reassertion of local taste prevailed, with the use of bright colour and schematic compositions.

Painting Painting (ca. 1720 (recto); ca. 1750–75 (verso)) by The Kota MasterThe Metropolitan Museum of Art

By the 1700’s distinct stylistic idioms had emerged in the major regional courts of Rajasthan...

Lakshmana hangs his hunt on a tree by UnknownNational Museum - New Delhi


...in what are now termed as the Mewar, Bikaner, Bundi, Kota, Jodhpur and Jaipur styles.

The Goddess worshipped by the sage Chyavana from a Tantric Devi series (ca. 1660-1670)Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art

The Rajput states in the Punjab Hills also followed a similar artistic trajectory. Mughal style paintings were patronised by some courts such as Mandi and Bilaspur, for a very brief period in the later half of the 17th century.

Painting Painting (ca. 1700–10) by A Master of the Mandi atelierThe Metropolitan Museum of Art

Local traditions however prevailed, and a distinct flowering of regional styles flourished in the various hill states of Basohli, Nurpur, Mandi, Bahu, Mankot, and Chamba in the second half of the 17th century.

Folio Folio (ca. 1725) by ManakuThe Metropolitan Museum of Art

From the early 18th century, Mughal conventions again seemed to have seeped in the Court of Guler in the painting styles of the artist Pandit Seu and his two sons Manaku and Nainsukh. 

Succeeding generations of the family produced artists who although carried the style of the family to different hill states, infused it with individual traits.

Painting Painting (ca. 1745–50) by NainsukhThe Metropolitan Museum of Art

The style that emerged from Pandit Seu and his two sons flourished in Guler and Kangra, with its stylistic variations at regional courts such as Chamba, Garhwal, Mandi, Basholi, Nalagarh, Lambagraon and elsewhere, and...

Folio Folio (ca. 1780) by Raja Sansar Chand|First generation after Manaku and NainsukhThe Metropolitan Museum of Art


...influenced the art under the Sikhs in the 19th century.

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