NCERT books class 12 fine art means one official textbook: An Introduction to Indian Art Part II, in 8 chapters, and every chapter PDF is on ncert.nic.in — linked in the table one scroll down on this page.
Beyond the file, this page tells you what is inside each chapter, measured from the book’s own pages: which schools of painting sit where, how many pages each chapter runs, and which chapters carry the recall-heavy material.
Two honest limits. The book’s paintings print without captions in our copy, so there is no figure index on this page; and Chapter 8’s exercise capture is flagged as a suspected extraction error, so no whole-book exercise total is published. We state no number rather than invent one.
NCERT Books Class 12 Fine Art: official PDF download
Every row below is NCERT’s own file, hosted on ncert.nic.in and free to download — the same PDFs your school works from.
The table shows the chapter, its title, the page range in the printed book and the direct link; for example, the first row points to Chapter 1 on ncert.nic.in (lefa101.pdf), the manuscript painting tradition on pages 1–9.
| Ch. | Chapter | Pages | Official PDF |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Manuscript Painting Tradition | 9 | |
| 2 | The Rajasthani Schools of Painting | 25 | |
| 3 | The Mughal School of Miniature Painting 3 | 20 | |
| 4 | The Deccani Schools of Painting | 12 | |
| 5 | The Pahari Schools of Painting | 18 | |
| 6 | The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism | 14 | |
| 7 | The Modern Indian Art | 28 | |
| 8 | The Living Art Traditions of India | 17 |
At a glance: the Class 12 Fine Art book, measured — and the Panoramic Indian Painting PDF question
- 8 chapters across 143 printed pages — and all 8 chapter PDFs below are verified against ncert.nic.in.
- 0 numbered section headings in our capture: the book’s topic titles are unnumbered, so they appear as lists under each chapter below.
- 0 activities were captured from the lesson pages — Chapter 3 is the one chapter that does list a “Project For Students” topic.
Two numbers this page refuses to invent. No figure count: the paintings print without captions that our capture could index, so there is no figure index on this page — which says nothing about how many pictures the book actually contains.
No exercise total either: Chapter 8 is the only chapter whose question capture is flagged as a suspected extraction error, so any whole-book exercise count would be unreliable. We state no total rather than publish a wrong one.
You may have searched for a different Class 12 Fine Art title. Panoramic Indian Painting is a separate NCERT book for Class 12 Fine Art that this directory does not hold; the book indexed here is An Introduction to Indian Art Part II.
NCERT publishes the official PDFs of both titles on ncert.nic.in, and the FAQ below returns to this point.
One scope note: these counts come from the NCERT textbook this directory indexes, not from the full CBSE Fine Art subject scheme, which is larger than the textbook chapters.
What is inside each chapter
The directory table below counts what our capture holds per chapter. A “section” is one of NCERT’s own numbered headings — this book has none, because its topic titles are unnumbered.
A “figure” is a numbered figure we indexed — none here, for the caption reason above — and a “question” is an end-of-chapter exercise. No second count table follows: every number you need is in this one.
| Ch. | Chapter | Sections | Activities | Figures | Questions |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Manuscript Painting Tradition | — | — | — | 2 |
| 2 | The Rajasthani Schools of Painting | — | — | — | 5 |
| 3 | The Mughal School of Miniature Painting 3 | — | — | — | 4 |
| 4 | The Deccani Schools of Painting | — | — | — | 6 |
| 5 | The Pahari Schools of Painting | — | — | — | 4 |
| 6 | The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism | — | — | — | 5 |
| 7 | The Modern Indian Art | — | — | — | 4 |
| 8 | The Living Art Traditions of India | — | — | — | — |
Chapter 1: The Manuscript Painting Tradition (pp. 1–9)
The book’s 9-page opening chapter places Indian painting before the court miniatures in the Western Indian School and Pala School manuscript traditions — the base that the Rajasthani, Mughal, Deccani and Pahari chapters build on.
- Western Indian School of Painting
- Pala School of Painting
Chapter 2: The Rajasthani Schools of Painting (pp. 10–34)
The largest school survey in the book: 25 pages of entries from Malwa and Mewar through Bundi, Kota, Bikaner, Kishangarh, Jodhpur to Jaipur, opening with an overview of themes and closing with the Bhagvata Purana — ten topics in all, which is why this chapter carries most of the Rajasthani recall load.
- Themes of Paintings – An Overview
- Malwa School of Painting
- Mewar School of Painting
- Bundi School of Painting
- Kota School of Painting
- Bikaner School of Painting
- Kishangarh School of Painting
- Jodhpur School of Painting
- Jaipur School of Painting
- Bhagvata Purana
Chapter 3: The Mughal School of Miniature Painting 3 (pp. 35–54)
Court miniature painting from early Mughal to later Mughal, covering the influences that shaped it, the process of production and its colours and technique, and closing on four named reproductions.
- Influences on Mughal Painting
- Early Mughal Painting
- Later Mughal Painting
- Process of Mughal Painting
- Colours and Technique of Mughal Painting
- Project For Students
- Noah’s Ark
- Krishna Lifts Mount Govardhan
- Falcon On A Bird Rest
- The Marriage Procession Of
Chapter 4: The Deccani Schools of Painting (pp. 55–66)
The Sultanate courts of the Deccan — Ahmadnagar, Bijapur and Golconda — each treated as its own school, followed by the paintings reproduced from them, including Chand Bibi Playing Polo and the Composite Horse.
- Ahmadnagar School of Painting
- Bijapur School of Painting
- Golconda School of Painting
- Composite Horse
- Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah Ii Hawking
- Ragini Pathamsika Of Raga Hindola
- Sultan Abdullah Qutb Shah
- Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya And Amir Khusrau
- Chand Bibi Playing Polo
Chapter 5: The Pahari Schools of Painting (pp. 67–84)
The hill schools — Basohli, Guler and Kangra — together with narrative works such as Awaiting Krishna And The Hesitant Radha and Balwant Singh Looking At A Painting With Nainsukh.
- Basohli School
- Guler School
- Kangra School
- Awaiting Krishna And The Hesitant Radha
- Balwant Singh Looking At A Painting With Nainsukh
- Nanda, Yashoda And Krishna
Chapter 6: The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism (pp. 85–98)
The bridge to modernism: Company Painting and Raja Ravi Varma, then the Bengal School built around Abanindranath Tagore and E. B. Havell, and finally Shantiniketan and pan-Asian modernism — the chapter to open for any of these names.
- Company Painting
- Raja Ravi Varma
- The Bengal School
- Abanindranath Tagore and E. B. Havell
- Shantiniketan — Early modernism
- Pan-Asianism and Modernism
- Different Concepts of Modernism: Western and Indian
- Tiller Of The Soil
- City In The Night
- Rama Vanquishing The Pride Of
Chapter 7: The Modern Indian Art (pp. 99–126)
The longest chapter in the book at 28 pages: modernism in India, political art, abstraction as a new trend, and new media art from the 1990s, with reproduced works such as Mother Teresa and Haldi Grinder.
- Introduction to Modernism in India
- Modern Ideologies and Political Art in India
- Abstraction – A New Trend
- Tracing the Modern Indian Art
- New Media Art: from 1990s
- The Lives Of Medieval Saints
- Mother Teresa
- Haldi Grinder
- Fairy Tales From Purvapalli
- Of Walls
Chapter 8: The Living Art Traditions of India (pp. 127–143)
The living folk traditions still practised today — Mithila, Warli, Gond, Pithoro and Pata painting, the Phads of Rajasthan, and the Dhokra sculptural casting tradition — are mostly recognition material, and this is the one chapter whose exercise capture is flagged as a suspected extraction error, so no question count is given for it.
- Painting Tradition
- Mithila painting
- Warli painting
- Gond painting
- Pithoro painting
- Pata painting
- Phads of Rajasthan
- Sculptural Traditions
- Dhokra casting
Where to find each school and artist: a chapter lookup
Revising a school name and need its chapter in one look? Use this reverse index; page ranges come from the official PDF.
| Looking for | Chapter | Page range |
|---|---|---|
| Western Indian and Pala manuscript schools | Chapter 1 | pp. 1–9 |
| Malwa, Mewar, Bundi, Kota, Bikaner, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Jaipur; the Bhagvata Purana | Chapter 2 | pp. 10–34 |
| Early and later Mughal miniature painting; Noah’s Ark, Krishna Lifts Mount Govardhan, Falcon on a Bird Rest | Chapter 3 | pp. 35–54 |
| Ahmadnagar, Bijapur, Golconda; Chand Bibi Playing Polo, the Composite Horse | Chapter 4 | pp. 55–66 |
| Basohli, Guler, Kangra; Nainsukh and Balwant Singh | Chapter 5 | pp. 67–84 |
| Company Painting, Raja Ravi Varma, Abanindranath Tagore, Shantiniketan | Chapter 6 | pp. 85–98 |
| Modernism, abstraction, political art, new media art; Mother Teresa, Haldi Grinder | Chapter 7 | pp. 99–126 |
| Mithila, Warli, Gond, Pithoro, Pata, Phads, Dhokra casting | Chapter 8 | pp. 127–143 |
Chapter pages: where each chapter gets its own study page
Each chapter below links to its dedicated study page once one is published; chapters still being written are named but not linked.
| Ch. | Chapter page |
|---|---|
| 1 | The Manuscript Painting Tradition (coming soon) |
| 2 | The Rajasthani Schools of Painting (coming soon) |
| 3 | The Mughal School of Miniature Painting 3 (coming soon) |
| 4 | The Deccani Schools of Painting (coming soon) |
| 5 | The Pahari Schools of Painting (coming soon) |
| 6 | The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism (coming soon) |
| 7 | The Modern Indian Art (coming soon) |
| 8 | The Living Art Traditions of India (coming soon) |
How to use this book: a working order
A realistic order for reading this book, with the reason for each step. Chapter lengths come from the table above.
- Chapter 1 first — 9 pages, and the manuscript base every court school grows out of.
- Then the two court traditions back to back: Chapter 3 (Mughal, 20 pages) and Chapter 4 (Deccani, 12 pages) — the pair most often compared in class.
- Then the two great ‘Indian’ school surveys: Chapter 2 (Rajasthani, 25 pages — the largest) and Chapter 5 (Pahari, 18 pages) — the heavy recall load, best read while you are fresh.
- Then the modern leap: Chapter 6 (Bengal School, 14 pages) before Chapter 7 (Modern Indian Art, 28 pages — the longest in the book) — Chapter 6 exists to explain how painting reached Chapter 7’s modernism.
- Chapter 8 (Living Art Traditions, 17 pages) last — mostly recognition material (Mithila, Warli, Gond, Pithoro, Pata, Phads, Dhokra), ideal for a quick pass close to the exam.
Two honest warnings. Keep the official PDF open while you read: this page cannot index the book’s reproductions by figure number, so the paintings themselves live in the PDF. And textbook contents and the examinable syllabus are not always identical — check the current official CBSE syllabus for Class 12 before assuming every chapter is examinable.
Related resources
This listing is maintained for the 2026-27 academic session using the NCERT textbook information available to us. NCERT remains the authority for confirming the latest edition.
This page sits inside the NCERT book directory on this site. Start from the NCERT books hub to browse classes, or go to the Class 12 hub for the other Class 12 subjects covered here.
Sources and data verification
- The counts on this page come from the NCERT textbook editions this directory indexes — the Class 12 Fine Art textbook An Introduction to Indian Art Part II, chapters published on ncert.nic.in (lefa1xx PDFs).
- What the dataset covers, and does not: 8 chapters across 143 printed pages. It does not cover the full CBSE Fine Art subject scheme; it carries no figure index because the book’s paintings print without captions our OCR could index; and Chapter 8’s question capture is a suspected extraction error, so no exercise total is published.
- This listing is maintained for the current academic session, using the NCERT information available to us. Editions, PDFs and page references are NCERT’s to settle.
- NCERT settles textbooks, editions and PDFs; CBSE settles the curriculum, syllabus and examinations.
Reference: NCERT Class 12 Fine Art textbook, official edition on ncert.nic.in. Figure captions and section titles quoted from the textbook; page references are to the official PDF.
Questions about the Class 12 Fine Art NCERT book
How many chapters are there in the NCERT Class 12 Fine Art book?
Eight. The textbook An Introduction to Indian Art Part II runs 8 chapters across 143 printed pages, from the manuscript painting tradition to the living art traditions of India.
Is the Class 12 Fine Art NCERT PDF free and official?
Yes. Every chapter PDF on this page is NCERT’s own file hosted on ncert.nic.in and free to download — the same files schools use. NCERT publishes the official PDFs of all its textbooks there.
Which chapter covers Rajasthani painting schools like Kishangarh and Bundi?
Chapter 2, The Rajasthani Schools of Painting (pages 10–34). It covers ten entries from Malwa and Mewar through Bundi, Kota, Bikaner, Kishangarh, Jodhpur and Jaipur, closing with the Bhagvata Purana.
Where do Raja Ravi Varma, the Bengal School and Company Painting appear?
All three sit in Chapter 6, The Bengal School and Cultural Nationalism (pages 85–98), which also covers Abanindranath Tagore, E. B. Havell and Shantiniketan.
I searched for the Panoramic Indian Painting class 12 PDF — is it on this page?
No. This page indexes An Introduction to Indian Art Part II; Panoramic Indian Painting is a separate NCERT title for Class 12 Fine Art that this directory does not hold. NCERT publishes the official PDFs of both titles on ncert.nic.in.