KEEPING THE LEGACY ALIVE
Coming from a family of expert miniature artist, Mr. Shammi Bannu Sharma, is the 7th generation artist in the family. His forefathers were official painters of Maharaja JaiSingh II, the founder of Jaipur.
Mr. Shammi Bannu is, son of Shri. Ved Pal Sharma, being his inspiration and a driving force to keep this art alive in India. Mr. Bannu, has exhibited his Miniature paintings throughout India with the legacy of his family, for decades now. For his inspiring work, he has been bestowed with the ‘Rastrapati Puraskar’ in 2014. His well acclaimed paintings of Lord Vishnu, exhibits the divinity in his paintings.
He is an Alumni of Rajasthan University, in the state is where, miniature art finds its roots, and is still alive in Jaipur today. Miniature paintings have been in our culture for centuries, due to the contribution of Mr. Bannu and his family’s, miniature art, finds an important place in India and also for the global audience. Mr. Shammi is amongst the few who still uses traditional style of mineral pigments for the paintings, it is his dream to build an institute specifically for the promotion of Miniature paintings.
ART BY STROKE
When we think of art, mesmerising paintings and legendary artist come to our mind. The world of art has produced many master pieces, but a few humble creators, have brought art to the world by single stroke of a brush. Such creation is known as ‘Miniature art’, in India ‘Pala’ school of art is most famous for it, from Buddhist paintings to stories of Jainism, to Ramayana and Mahabharata, all are covered in Miniature art, throughout India.
The Rajas of Rajasthan, Muslim kings of the Deccan and Malwa, all have contributed in keeping the art alive throughout the ages. The Pala School of paintings finds its origin back to the 7th century AD, marking it as one of Indians artistic traditions.
The Pala School brings the stories from Buddhist text and scriptures and are mostly found in the eastern part of India. The delicate use of bright colours and graceful strokes of thin lines were the highlights of Pala, the methods of these paintings were taught in famous Buddhist monasteries such as ‘Nalanda’.
While the rise of Buddhism dominated the miniature art in the east, Jainism and its stories prevailed in the western regions of India. The depiction of ‘Kalpa sutra’ to ‘kalakacharya katha’, are seen in Rajasthan and regions of Gujarat. The highlight of these art work was, the enlarged eyes and square shaped hands, along with it, many figures were regularly depicted wearing gold jewellers. The material used in them, was made from organic colours and stone dust. Primary colours were red, green and yellow.
Initially, both Buddhist and Jain painting were done on palm-leafs, with time and discovery of modern material, these art came upon a more sustainable material “Paper”.
Even, The Mughals could not resist these phenomenal pieces of art, many Mughal court scenes are depicted in Miniature paintings. In the era of the Mughal Empire, art was well developed and supported all over India, capturing centuries of Indian traditions, stories, rituals and manuscripts.
In the Mughal era, these painting captured Mughal Empire, its history, wars, great emperors and conquest. While, Rajputana style of painting turned more towards Indian myths. In the period of Akbar ‘Tuti Nama’ and ‘Hamza Nama.’ Two of the most celebrated artwork came up, with this, also marked the decline of art in India, as with Aurangzeb in power, he destroyed all forms of art in Mughal Empire.
By 17th-19th century in the Himalayan kingdoms, the “Pahari School of Miniature Paintings” can be observed. The Pahari style is divided in few sub-schools, such as Basohli School, Kangra School, Chamba School, and Garhwal School. The styles depicted, the Bhakti movement symbols and divinity.
The Orissa School, represents Lord Krishna and Radha from tales of ‘Krishna Leela, evidence even show images of Lord Vishnu. This were fine paintings with colourful landscapes in the background.
The Deccan School is relevantly recent, originating from Hyderabad. Depicting influence of Turkish, Iranian and Persian culture in its paintings. The highlights of these painting are, the central role of women, their larger eyes, attractive faces and sensual bodies are depicted with use of bright colours bringing out the multi-dimensional sense made in them.
Miniature art, marks modernization of Indian art, it is based on extreme photographic details, while maintaining grace, with use of bold of colours. The striking reality from all forms of miniature art, is how closely linked these paintings are to Indian folk-tales, while distinguished in its style of art work. From use of natural colours, and materials used such as the palm leaves, paper, wood, marble used as canvas and brush made with squirrel hair, were used for this historical art work.
With time all forms of art either fade away or live in museums, Miniature art will stay in Indian consciousness for a long time, due to its contribution in history, myths and most of all its creative richness.
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