Jain Miniature Paintings from Western India c6.139

c6.139

After examining at length the influence of Western Indian art traditions on the wall-paintings from different parts of India and Burma, we come to the conclusion that in the tenth century, or even a little earlier, the fresh conventions of the Western Indian style left their homeland and travelled to the remotest corners of India, influencing the contemporary Pāla painting in Eastern India and Nepāl and penetrating as far as Pagan and Nepāl. These traditions seem to have travelled with the advancement of Rājpūt culture from Gujarāt and Rājaputānā. As Apabhramśa became the common medium of literary expression in this age, so the linear conception of Western Indian school became the medium of artistic expression all over the country. There is no doubt that the regional schools maintained some of their earlier characteristics, which was inevitable as the art conventions which those schools had followed for many generations could not be completely suppressed, but generally changes were effected in conformation with the new conventions. Henceforward, the ancient Western Indian school loses its geographical connotation and merges into the general trend of the medieval Indian art.