The urge to express, to communicate and share some beautiful narrative stories gave birth to visual and performing arts. In this process the kiving progressive impulse to the timeless universal gets a coherent shape in creative designs. Tradition plays an important role in this creative artistic process on painting on the walls

Bhimbetka is the world’s oldest prehistoric rock paintings. It is situated 40 kilometers south of Bhopal in India. Surrounded by evergreen forest and about 50 or 60 small hillocks, this place has remained a landmark of generations of prehistoric art. It is believed that?these paintings are twenty thousand to five hundred thousand years old. The animals and birds constitute the largest subject of these paintings. Some animals are silhouettes, yet very attractive. He has used triangles, rectangles, circles, and hexagons freely.

The wall space of the Ajanta caves is entirely covered by paintings of stories of the lives and incarnations of Buddha, taken from the Jataka tales. In addition, the paintings of Ajanta placed new importance on the stories of the Boddhisattvas, disciples of Buddha who achieved enlightenment but remained on earth to help others to do so

The walls of Daria Daulat Bagh palace in Shrirangapattna fort in Karnataka contain beautiful historic paintings. The western wall has large battle scenes representing Colonel Bailey’s defeat at Kancheevaram in 1780 A.D. Hyder Ali and Tippu Sultan are shown in the midst of their troops with the Nizam’s army arriving too late to help the British.

Traditionally painted on walls by the women of Bihar to invoke divine protection, the humble Madhubani has come a long way. Scenes from Hindu epics, fertility symbols, auspicious birds and beasts are painted on walls with the paste of newly harvested rice. In recent times, however, Madhubani artists have been selling their work commercially by putting paper, pen and colors to good use. Full of intense energy and bright colors, they are extremely popular with foreign tourists.

Warli paintings are the tribal paintings of Maharashtra and are traditionally done in the homes of the Warlis. Painted white on mud walls, they are pretty close to prehistoric cave paintings in execution and usually depict sowing and harvesting scenes. Originally made with rice paste, they were turned into a marketable commodity when the India Handicrafts and Handlooms Board provided the poor Warlis with brown paper and white paint.


Phad paintings are yellow, red and green coloured long scrolls carried by the ’Bhopas’ or itinerant balladers of Rajasthan, who narrated in song the legend of Pabuji -a local hero -on auspicious occasions to the accompaniment of the folk instrument ’Ravanhatta’ made by the Joshis of Shahpur, near Bhilwara. Phads are now also available in smaller panels portraying single incidents or characters from the epic.

Pata Chitras of Orissa mainly depict stories pertaining to Jagannath temple of Puri. Mainly cotton or tussar silk is used and coated with a mixture of chalk, tamarind seed and gum to give the surface of the cloth a leathery texture. These paintings are created in the form of scrolls. These painted scrolls, depicted mythology and stories relating to various gods and goddesses. These paintings are known for bright vibrant colours and distinct lines

Kalighat Paintings are a group of paintings, which have their roots in cultural upheavals of 19th century colonial Bengal. Initially, Kalighat paintings were mainly depictions of Hindu gods and goddesses including their various incarnations. But over a period of time the influences expanded and Kalighat Paintings became a reflection of the society of their time. The artists used this medium to record their impressions of the dynamic social environment they lived in. Calcutta, the capital of British India served as the inspiration for these artists. They turned their satirical gaze towards a changing society, altering lifestyles and industrial progress. If you happen to visit the Kalighat metro railway station you will find that the walls have a distinct mosaic that represent the society of a bygone era. In fact those panels represent the Kalighat patas.

Patua, Patidar, Pata are the names by which a chitrakar is commonly known. He is a poet-painter-singer. He rhymes a narration around an episode of some Hindu mythology that imparts a moral lesson. He paints the sequences in a series of rectangular frames in vertical format as a scroll painting. To the clientele, he unfurls the scroll frame by frame as his narration set to tune proceeds. The moral lesson makes listeners aware of the vices and virtues of life. Jam pata or Jadu pata and the Chakkhudan pata, are painted for a family that has recently suffered bereavement.

Patuas from the vicinities of Calcutta— mainly from the nearby districts of 24 Paraganas, Hawrah and Medinipur— started to throng around Kalighat temple and started selling paintings of deities done on cheap paper in local watercolour to devotees and pilgrims. The Patuas painted traditional religious subjects, but the contact with urban life made them look for contemporary and secular subjects. The life of the English people and more interestingly, the depiction of the life of the Calcutta Babus, became more popular items. The Patuas reflected in their paintings the incoherence of the urban life with an extraordinary sense of humour.

The modern political paintings on the walls of Calcutta are an interesting depiction of the life story in a modern city and their political aspirations. The famous painter of India, M.F Hussain, whose paintings are now selling for $ 2 million, started his life as a billboard painter in Bombay. The cinema posters on the walls of modern cities are kitsch of painting styles in India.