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Manuscript Painting:

In Assam, the art of painting developed around manuscript illumination in direct response to the bhakti movement spearheaded by Mahapurusa Srimanta Sankaradeva during 15th-16th centuries A.D. The movement gave birth to a vigorous culture of literature accompanied by an artistic resurgence with multiple ramifications. The twin area of art- performing and plastic ensured for itself a uniquely Assamese style through a process of synthesis of Indian and local traditions. The genres of performing art is marked by classical fervour, while the latter comprising architecture, sculpture and painting reflected increasing preoccupation with local form as the vehicle of expression of the new social, religious and cultural revolution.

The sattras used to patronize and support their own persons called khanikars to work with their penmanship. Many bibliophiles also came forward to support the khanikars for their penmanship. The local kings also did not lag behind in this respect. The Ahom kings used to patronize and support their own "army of clerks and copyists " under the supervision of a royal officer called likhakar barua, meaning superintendent of scribes. The royal court also attached a set of compartments called gandhiya bharal for preservation of royal manuscripts records and letters to the palace. The entire social situation was extremely congenial for numerical growth of manuscripts both in the palace and the abbey. The palace mostly patronized the translation and original works of secular nature, while the sattras were preoccupied with the preparation of Assamese rendering of the Bhagavata purana, the epics and other puranas bearing religious significance and importance in the context of the bhakti-cult.

The artists called khanikars were initially associated with copying of transcripts and make-up of actors of dramatic performance produced in the sattras. Later on, they extended the scope of their brush to decorate the folios of manuscripts in line and color. Their knowledge of brush and colour in the context of traditional dramatic presentation was of great help in defining pictorial forms for transforming verbal imageries in the pages of a manuscript. A study of the illustrated manuscripts now available in the sattras, government and private institutions and also those lying with individual household would amply substantiate the fact that the artists of the old days marked their imprint in developing a uniquely regional school of painting for Assam. It is however, a fact that this school of painting is a blending of two lines of development the Sattriya and the rajaghoriya (for its growth in the royal premises of the Ahom court). The first line of development was older than the second. On the other hand, the second line initiated the culture first with the artist of the former and subsequently established its own atelier with artists commissioned from outside Assam for the creation of a new idiom and style .