Rajasthan is famous for its traditional miniature paintings, which are mural-like paintings mostly depicting incidents from Rajput or Mughal history and legends, or stories from the Hindu Puranas.
Miniature paintings are truly works of art when considered as a whole, but the details in them are mainly craft works, results of hours of care, dedication and love of the artist.
Rajasthan is famous for its varied schools of art and each of them are famous for their distinctive styles. A student starts with paintings on paper. Once he becomes mature, he starts painting on silk, and then on marble sheets. The most experienced artists used to use ivory, until usage of ivory was banned by the government. Since they couldn't "degrade" themselves by working on silk or paper, the senior artists invented a new method of painting on dead animal or camel bone. For this, the bone is powdered into a fine form, mixed with a kind of glue, and then using a special process, spread and flattened into thin sheets. For color, natural paints are used, just as for block printing. Brushes with just a few thin squirrel hair attached on them are used for applying the paint.
There is incredible diversity and imaginative creativity found in Rajasthani paintings.
