The Citrasutra of the Vishnudharmottara Purana

Parul Dave Mukherji's translation of the Citrasutra of the Vishnudharmottara Purana renders one of the earliest and most important Sanskrit texts on painting theory, part of a larger Puranic compendium addressing iconography, proportion and aesthetic principle for religious image-making. As a translated primary source with substantial scholarly introduction, it carries the tradition's own theoretical authority on how classical Indian painting was meant to represent divine and human form. Mukherji's introduction situates the text critically within its manuscript transmission and later reception, work respected in Indian art history, though the underlying Sanskrit text's own composite and multi-layered origins mean specific technical terms remain subjects of ongoing philological discussion among Sanskritists working closely with the source.