In Search of Aesthetic Divinity

Any discussion of traditional art forms in India would not be complete or possible without stepping into the realms of the narrative painting tradition. Indian Painting: The Lesser-Known Traditions edited by Anna L. Dallapiccola presents a bouquet of twelve incisive essays elaborating on these lesser known traditions of India. The key word in the title, perhaps, is ‘tradition’ as no scholarship has ever positioned these so called ‘folk’ traditions as ‘schools’, and yet reading through these articles one is convinced that these traditions are more deeply entrenched and more consistent in their stylistic continuity than many ‘schools’ or ‘movements’ of painting. The depth and continuity of these ‘traditions’ is borne out by the range of issues and time line of expression that some of these works cover.