How did the Vishnudharmottara classify portraits?

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Watch and hear a person playing the mridangam drum of the Carnatic music tradition — South Asian arts The *mridangam*, the principal drum of the Carnatic music tradition.

In the context of South Asian arts, the 6th-century text known as the Viṣṇudharmottara classifies portraiture into four distinct categories:

Natural
Lyrical
Sophisticated
Mixed

Beyond these classifications, the text provides detailed guidelines for depicting human figures, including specific types of hair (such as long and fine, curling to the right, wavy, straight and flowing, or curled and abundant) and various eye shapes (such as bow-shaped, fishlike, lotus-petal-like, globular, or the hue of the blue lotus). The Viṣṇudharmottara also enumerates artistic stances and explains the principles of foreshortening to be used in both painting and sculpture.1