Vastu-shastra (Vol. I: Hindu Science of Architecture; Vol. II: Hindu Canons of Iconography and Painting) v2.c78.s2.2

v2.c78.s2.2

The very fact that there was literature, there must have been painting also. Muses of Fine Arts (Literature and Painting included) did not arrive one after another. They descended on Earth together and so the origin of painting must be syncronous with the origin of poetry, music, drama, sculpture, architecture; etc., etc. Moreover, the cultivation of fine arts started with the rise of civilisation, the rise of cities and citizenship. One of the most material form of a civilisation is its ways of living as well as those of doing (bodily and mentally both, and hence thinking also comes here). If the savages could work sculpture and build branch houses, prepare implements, paint the cave-walls (their refuge) and do many other things, painting and allied art must have been the time-honoured companions in the progress of civilisation throughout the ages.