India is a country with a rich heritage, culture and traditions. It also home to artists of all kinds of traditonal art. Indian traditional art involves beautiful colours and depictions. These art forms have a rich history which makes them all the more interesting!

Here are some very popular Indian art forms :

• Kalamkari: 'Kalam' means pen, 'kari' means craft. It is among the most beautiful Indian traditional art forms. What makes Kalamkari unique is that it only uses natural, vegetable dyes. This form of art originated in Andhra Pradesh, particularly in Kalahasti and Machilipatnam. Andhra Pradesh still remains the main hub of Kalamkari in India. All the drawings in a Kalamkari fabric are hand-drawn and hence are absolutely unique! They are drawn using inks and dyes derived from natural sources which makes them eco-friendly too!
• Madhubani: This form of traditional Indian art is also called as Mithila Art. This art form uses various tools such as twigs, brushes, nib-pens and even fingers. It uses natural dyes and pigments. Madhubani art is often practiced by the people of Nepal and Bihar. The figures are drawn and outlined with black ink and the colours are filled later on. The figures involve characters from the Hindu mythology. Madhubani art involves a lot of finely detailed textures. It is a highly detailed form of art and takes months to complete. This type of art was used my women to decorate the walls of their houses. The theme of Madhubani art was influenced by the religious beliefs of Hindus. This art form has a rich heritage and goes back atleast 2,500 years.
• Tanjore Painting : This from of painting is commonly known as Thanjavur painting. It is a  South Indian style of painting which originated in the town of Thanjavur.  It is characterized by its famous gold coating.  They can be distinguished by their rich and vivid colors, glittering gold foils overlaid on beautiful gesso work adorned with glass beads or even  precious and semi-precious gems.Thanjavur Paintings are being done on canvas, walls, wooden panel, glass etc. 
• Warli Art : Warli art is a style of tribal art mostly created by the tribal people from the North Sahyadri Range in Maharashtra. This form of art is mainly composed of rudimentary graphic vocabulary such as circles, triangles, squares and other basic shapes. This art form narrated the stories of the tribal people of that region. This art form uses bamboo sticks chewed at one end to act as paint brushes. Colors such as Henna, indigo, black, white etc. are mostly used. In this art form, human and animal bodies are represented by two triangles joined at the tip. The paintings are simple line drawings but have a lot of significance.
• Patachitra: This form of art originated in Orissa, India. It is a traditional, cloth-based art form. Most of these paintings represent Hindu deities and Hindu mythology. All colours used in the paintings are made of natural dyes and pigments. It is said that this form of painting evolved atleast over 1000 years ago. These paintings are done on small strips of cotton cloth. The cloth canvas is prepared by coating the cloth with a mixture of chalk and gum made derived from tamarind seeds. Then the cloth is rubbed using stones and is left to dry. The mixture of gum and chalk gives the cloth a leathery finish. Then the artists paint using naturally derived colours. The artists have such expertise that they directly paint the figures using the brushes without first laying the outline or structure. They make their own colors and hence this form of art is eco-friendly too.