CLEAR PERSPECTIVE: Shiva-Parvati bathing, circa 1770, likely to fetch $30,000-50,000

When painter Natvar Bhavsar came to the United States in 1962, he had more than just his artistic dreams to pursue; he also had an errand to run for a friend: to explore American buyers for a clutch of 40 Rajasthani miniatures.

Faced with this unique request, Bhavsar approached Stella Krame-risch, an art historian of enormous repute who served on the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Art Museum. Kramerisch approved of the collection, which was not from any royal archive, and offered to pick up one of the paintings for $125. Assuming that she had sufficient resources, the entire collection could have gone for a ball park figure of $5,000.

Now, 40 years later, a defining moment in Indian art history is being etched. With Indian contemporary art on an unprecedented ascendant, it is not surprising that the price of Indian miniatures has also sky-rocketed. In March this year, New York-based Sotheby's raised about $1.4 million-including a record price of $130,000 for a Kangra miniature that was estimated to fetch $50,000-70,000-at the auction of 72 paintings from the private collection of Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck.

OLD TREASURES: Six Travellers, circa 1820, expected to fetch $60,000-90,000; From Tantrik Devi series (below), circa 1660-70, priced at $100,000-150,000

"Many western artists collect earlier Indian art for inspiration." Edward Wilkinson, assistant vice-president, Sotheby's

"The market had been pretty dormant since 1991, when the last single-owner collection was offered. Essentially, all the paintings had been absorbed. So in March we had the Gloria Katz collection put on auction-the first of its kind in 10 years," says Edward Wilkinson, assistant vice-president, Sotheby's.

The auction house is now following it up with another bidding for Indian miniatures from the Paul F. Walter collection on November 14. Comprising nearly 100 works, the collection features paintings from the Rajput school which are distinctly Hindu in subject matter and are based on epics and religious texts. The collection includes works created in the Hindu courts of Rajasthan, Bundelkhand, Malwa and Gujarat, and the hill states of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, and collected over a period of more than 30 years.

Ahead of the sale in New York in November, highlights of the collection will be on view at Sotheby's in New York from September 14-19 during the Asia Week, and in London from October 10-15 during the Islamic Week.

Significantly, the auction will come at the same time that Sotheby's conducts its annual sales for international contemporary art-a belated recognition to the path-breaking work of Indian artists of the 15th and 16th centuries. Often said but rarely acknowledged publicly is the fact that the oeuvre of Indian miniatures was a source of inspiration for many western maestros of the 19th century.

Arani Bose, co-owner of the Bose-Pacia Art Gallery in Chelsea, New York, has been an advocate of this symbiotic relationship between Indian miniatures and western contemporary art. He believes that the resurgence of modern Indian contemporary art, which draws inspiration from Indian miniatures, has contributed to the recent revival in interest by auction houses.

"There are a number of contemporary western artists who collect earlier Indian work for inspiration. In fact, there is a generation of western artists with the same dramatic sense of palette that doesn't follow the regular arrangement and norm. It is essentially suggesting that there is a relationship and a sense of feeling," says Wilkinson.

The introduction of Persian-styled miniatures by the Mughals lent a new dimension to the art of painting in India. Not only were Mughal miniatures great masterpieces, they also influenced local miniature schools in Rajasthan, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Various miniature schools flourished in Rajasthan during the Mughal era and continued even after its decline. Some of the important miniature schools of the period were Mewar, Marwar, Kishangarh, Dhunbar, each with its own distinct style that distinguished it from the others. Court scenes, love scenes, hunting scenes, images of local deities and mythological episodes dominate these paintings.

According to Bose, Indian miniatures always had a unique perspective that was avant-garde. "An Indian miniature painting is essentially in layers; the foreground and the background are not coordinated. Some of the miniatures also introduce different time periods in the layers and hence make the perspective very compelling," Bose explains. "This introduces enormous activity and hence tells a story. These are very modern perspectives and were first introduced in the western world only by the early 1900s."

The highlight of the Paul Walter collection is an illustration of a Tantric Devi series, Basholi, circa 1660-70, which is estimated to sell for $100,000-150,000. In this painting, featured in Devi: The Great Goddess, (published in 1999), the goddess-Devi as Bhadrakali and garlanded with snakes-stands in the centre of the picture on a corpse and is accompanied by four-armed Tripura and an acolyte strewing flowers. Accentuated by the brilliant, yellow background and red border, this painting is one of the few pages from the Tantric Devi series that remains in private hands.

Also included in the collection is Delhi, from 1820-undoubtedly the most important Company school manuscript created. Featuring six richly-attired travellers, this watercolour on paper from the celebrated series commissioned by two English brothers, William and James Fraser, who were based near Delhi in the early 19th century, is estimated to sell for $60,000-90,000.

Very clearly, the Sotheby's auction is set to score another first with a historic but benchmark facet of Indian art. The expected record collections could give another boost to the unprecedented buoyancy in the market for Indian art.