Indian Art Heritage, Folk and Traditional Art Forms
Questions here mix chronology, region and technique, so link each style to a place, a medium and a subject.
Classical and court traditions
Indus Valley: the lost-wax bronze Dancing Girl from Mohenjo-daro and the steatite Pashupati seal. Ajanta (2nd century BCE–6th century CE) holds Buddhist murals on lime-finished mud plaster painted with mineral pigments - a dry, tempera-like technique, not true fresco. Ellora (6th–10th century CE) includes the monolithic Kailasa temple. Mughal miniature painting used wasli paper, opaque watercolour, squirrel-hair brushes and burnishing; artists include Basawan, Abul Hasan and Ustad Mansur. Rajasthani schools: Mewar, Bundi, Kishangarh, Kota. Pahari schools: Basohli, Guler, Kangra. Bengal School: Abanindranath Tagore's wash technique, Nandalal Bose, Jamini Roy.
Folk traditions
Madhubani (Mithila, Bihar): double outlines, kachni line work and bharni filling, no empty space, natural dyes. Warli (Maharashtra): rice paste on ochre mud walls, geometric vocabulary - circle for sun, triangle for tree, square for the chaukat shrine - and the tarpa dance. Gond (Madhya Pradesh): dots and dashes, associated with Jangarh Singh Shyam. Pattachitra (Odisha): cloth-based, Jagannath themes. Kalamkari (Andhra Pradesh): Srikalahasti pen-work and Machilipatnam block printing. Phad (Rajasthan): scrolls of Pabuji. Tanjore: gold foil and gesso. Kalighat: nineteenth-century Calcutta patua painting.
Worked example
Given flat profile figures, a decorated border, double outlines and dense floral filling, argue Madhubani - the double outline and horror vacui are diagnostic - and note that flatness alone does not indicate Warli, which is stick-like and geometric.
Traps
Calling Ajanta a fresco; swapping Kalamkari and Pattachitra; attributing Kangra refinement to Basohli's bold palette; crediting a collective folk tradition to one named artist.