Indian art is basically religious in its themes and developments, and its appreciation requires at least some background knowledge of the country's faiths. The Jain and Hindu styles overlapped and produced the elaborate all-over patterns carved in bands that became the distinguishing feature of Indian architecture. The Jains often built on a gigantic scale, a marked feature being pointed domes constructed of level courses of corbeled stones. The earliest prehistoric sculpture in India was produced in stone, clay, ivory, copper, and gold.
Remains of Indian painting before AD 100 have survived in two localities. The remarkable Buddhist murals in rock-cut shrines in Ajanta, in Maharashtra, cover the period from AD 50 to 642. The earlier paintings of the Ajanta caves represent figures of indigenous types, having noble bearing and depicted with strong sensuality. The painting in the Jogimara cave at Orissa belongs to two periods, 1st century BC and medieval; the later work is not as good, obscuring the earlier, more vigorous drawing.
The Gupta period established the classical phase of Indian art, at once serene and energetic, spiritual and voluptuous. Art was the explicit medium of stating spiritual conceptions. A special kind of painting, executed on scrolls, depicted the reward of good and evil deeds in the world. Painting of the Gupta period has been preserved in three of the Ajanta caves.
