Yesterday Nayan was launched.
In Sanskrit, the word means “eyes.”
It comes from the work of Ankit Vyas, founder of Niraamish.
Ankit is a London-based lawyer and an independent scholar of Indian miniature painting. What began as a personal fascination slowly became a deeper practice of looking.
Years of studying details in historical miniatures led him to share close-ups online. What started as an Instagram page grew into a community interested in the visual language of the tradition.
From that long engagement grew Nayan.
The book centres on ten eyes drawn from Indian miniature paintings across centuries. Each copy includes ten hand-painted eyes made in Jaipur by the master miniaturist Riyazuddin ji.
Ankit approached me with an unusual challenge: how to house ten miniature paintings within an artist’s book while still allowing them to be seen and, if desired, removed and framed.
The solution is an unfolding structure containing ten small frames (10 × 10 cm), alongside a monograph examining these eyes across centuries of miniature painting.
The project brings together historical research, close visual analysis, and contemporary miniature practice, with a chapter devoted to each selected eye.
What I admire most is the way the project moves between places and disciplines.
Between scholarship and making.
Between Jaipur and London.
Between historical tradition and contemporary form.
Above all, it is a book about learning how to look
Edition of 25 copies.
For acquisitions and enquiries please contact Niraamish.