The art of painting in India goes back to prehistoric times. The Pre-historic paintings in the cave shelters of Bhimbetka and Pachmarhi are simple designs showing scenes of hunting, farming and dancing against mottled rock and were initially done in black or earth colors. The palette soon expanded to include white, red, yellow, blue and green. This progression can clearly be seen in the wall art of Bhimbetka. Drawings on walls of caves and rock shelters served a twofold purpose: decorating homes and appeasing deities. While the adivasis (tribals) of yore traced simple, very basic forms to ward off evil spirits and disease, more sophisticated art survives in the Buddhist rock-carved monasteries of the middle of the first millennium AD, such as Ajanta in Maharashtra and Bagh in MP.


¤ Deity- Wall Paintings

The Rathwa Bhils of MP and eastern Gujarat commonly install a deity in the form of a ritual wall painting within the home. Outside the sacred enclosure other paintings depict incidents from daily life, usually featuring horses.
The Bhils and Bhilala tribes of Madhya Pradesh paint myths related to creation called pithora paintings. Horses, elephants, tigers, birds, gods, men and objects of daily life are painted in bright multicoloured hues.
Mughal miniature paintings also figure as a footnote in MP because the Persians of the court of Malwa were enthusiastic patrons.


¤ Mandana

Auspicious wall paintings of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, mandanas are meant to protect the home and hearth as well as to welcome gods into the house. Mud and cow dung are usually plastered on the walls which are then painted white. The women of the house paint symbols like the swastika, the sun or the tree of life in black and red. Auspicious diagrams are drawn on the floor with rice paste, coloured powder, flower petals or grains of rice, often with symbolic motifs set within floral and geometric patterns. 


¤ Madhubani

Traditionally painted on walls and floors 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 daubed 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

These 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.