Page 15 - Art and Crafts of Bangladesh

12 ART AND CRAFTS

Pala painting was the initial instance of manuscript miniature in pre-Muslim India.
This painting primarily played a considerable role as a connecting bridge between the
classical mural painting method born in western India and the extensive practice of
miniature art that followed at a later age.
Painting during the Sultanate Period
In the successive stage after Pala painting a completely different kind of miniature
painting began in the courts of the Muslim Sultans in Bengal. This style of painting
was in all aspects inspired by the manuscript painting of the first stages of the Safavid
painting style of Persian art. It is from the tenth century AD that the enthusiasm of
the Muslim community for books is noticeable. Muslim painting right from its
beginning was dependent on paper, but in India the early manuscripts of books were
written on palm leaves. As palm leaves were used, the design of the paintings in the
manuscripts of India was of a horizontal character, but the aesthetic characteristics of
Muslim painting had developed in a vertical form. Due to religious reasons, Muslim
book illustrations imparted ideal form to the object or shape which was considered to
be more acceptable than faithfulness to reality. Calligraphy and geometric
ornamentation formed the spectacular ornamental beauty of this painting. Arab
painting of the Middle East was formed through the amalgamation of Hellenistic,
Christian, Sassanid, Manachean or Uighur paintings. Persia was traditionally rich in
14
fine arts from ancient times. After Arabian Islam had annexed Byzantium, the
painting of that region influenced the Muslim painters. At the other end after the
central Asian Turkemen adopted Islam the Chinese pictorial style entered Muslim
painting. The heritage of Muslim manuscript painting was formed mainly through the
connection between these three artistic traditions. Whereas, in the case of India it is
notable that no direct relation between the painting of the Sultanate with the local
Hindu, Buddhist or Jaina paintings was established. But in the Sultanate paintings of
the fifteenth/sixteenth centuries which were influenced by Persian art, the presence of
some local influence can be noticed. For instance, the manuscript of the Iskandar
Nama the first part of which is entitled Sharafnama composed during the reign of
Sultan Nusrat Shah, though executed following the Herat and Shiraz Schools of
Persia, the type of the script and the architectural design of the manuscript is
completely new and Bangladeshi in origin. 15

Wooden Book Cover and Pata Painting
Where at one end paintings influenced by Persia were being painted, simultaneously
during the rule of Husain Shah, Chaitanya Deva of Navadvipa fused the cult of Bhakti
introduced by him and artistic emotion to create a new culture. This movement gave
new life to the painting of Bengal. Mainly throughout the whole of the seventeenth
century, even up to the early eighteenth century in Vishnupur and other places the
painting of Bengal flourished in an unprecedented display of creativity. One of the
examples of this tradition was the painted wooden panel used as the cover of
manuscripts (fig.1.4). Other than these, specimens of narrative scrolls or patas drawn