EVEN after Ajanta, very few sites with paintings havesurvived which provide valuable evidences to

reconstruct the tradition of paintings. It may also be notedthat the sculptures too were plastered and painted. Thetradition of cave excavations continued further at manyplaces where sculpting and painting were donesimultaneously.

Badami

One such site is Badami in the State of Karnataka. Badamiwas the capital of the early Chalukyan dynasty which ruledthe region from 543 to 598 CE. With thedecline of the Vakataka rule, the Chalukyasestablished their power in the Deccan. TheChalukya king, Mangalesha, patronised theexcavation of the Badami caves. He was theyounger son of the Chalukya king, PulakesiI, and the brother of Kirtivarman I. Theinscription in Cave No.4 mentions the date578–579 CE, describes the beauty of the caveand includes the dedication of the image ofVishnu. Thus it may be presumed that thecave was excavated in the same era and thepatron records his Vaishnava affiliation.Therefore, the cave is popularly known asthe Vishnu Cave. Only a fragment of thepainting has survived on the vaulted roof ofthe front mandapa.

Paintings in this cave depict palacescenes. One shows Kirtivarman, the son ofPulakesi I and the elder brother ofMangalesha, seated inside the palace withhis wife and feudatories watching a dancescene. Towards the corner of the panel arefigures of Indra and his retinue. Stylisticallyspeaking, the painting represents an

LATER MURAL

TRADITIONS

Queen and

attendants, Badami

5

2019-2020

AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART62

extension of the tradition of mural painting from Ajanta toBadami in South India. The sinuously drawn lines, fluidforms and compact composition exemplify the proficiencyand maturity the artists had achieved in the sixth centuryCE. The gracefully drawn faces of the king and the queenremind us of the style of modelling in Ajanta. Their eye-sockets are large, eyes are half-closed, and lips areprotruding. It is noteworthy to observe that the contoursof different parts of the face create protruding structuresof the face itself. Thus, with simple line treatment artistscould create volume.

Murals under the Pallava, Pandava and

Chola Kings

The tradition of painting extended further down south inTamil Nadu in the preceding centuries with regionalvariations during the regimes of Pallava, Pandya and Choladynasties. The Pallava kings who succeeded the Chalukyakings in parts of South India, were also patrons of arts.Mahendravarma I who ruled in the seventh century wasresponsible for building temples at Panamalai,Mandagapattu and Kanchipuram. The inscription atMandagapattu mentions Mahendravarman I withnumerous titles such as Vichitrachitta (curious-minded),

Sittanvasal — early Pandya period, ninth century CE

2019-2020

LATER MURAL TRADITIONS 63

Chitrakarapuli (tiger among artists), Chaityakari (templebuilder), which show his interest in art activities. Thepaintings in these temples too were done at his initiative,though only fragments remain. The Panamalai figure of afemale divinity is drawn gracefully. Paintings at theKanchipuram temple were patronised by the Pallava king,Rajsimha. Only traces of paintings remain now whichdepict Somaskanda. Faces are round and large. Lines arerhythmic with increased ornamentation when comparedwith the paintings of an earlier periods. Depiction of torsostill remains like the earlier sculptural tradition but iselongated.

When the Pandyas came to power, they too patronisedart. Tirumalaipuram caves and Jaina caves at Sittanvasalare some of the surviving examples. A few fragmentedlayers of paintings can be seen in Tirumalaipuram. InSittanavasal, the paintings are visible on the ceilings ofshrines, in verandas, and on the brackets.

On the pillars of the veranda are seen dancing figuresof celestial nymphs. The contours of figures are firmlydrawn and painted in vermilion red on a lighterbackground. The body is rendered in yellow with subtlemodelling. Supple limbs, expression on the faces of dancers,rhythm in their swaying movement, all speak of the artists’skill in creative imagination in visualising the forms in

Devi — seventh century CE, Panamalai

2019-2020

AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART64

the architectural context. Their eyes are slightly elongatedand at times protrude off the face. This feature is observedin many subsequent paintings in the Deccan and SouthIndia.

The tradition of building temples and embellishing themwith carvings and paintings continued during the reign ofthe Chola kings who ruled over the region from the ninthto the thirteenth century. But it was in the eleventhcentury, when the Cholas reached their zenith of power,that masterpieces of the Chola art and architecture beganto appear. The temples of Brihadeswara at Thanjavur,Gangaikonda Cholapuram and Darasuram in Tamil Naduwere built during the reigns of Rajaraja Chola, his son,Rajendra Chola and Raj a raja Chola II, respectively.

Though Chola paintings are seen in Nartamalai, themost important are those in Brihadeswara temple. Thepaintings were executed on the walls of the narrow passagesurrounding the shrine. Two layers of paintings were foundwhen they were discovered. The upper layer was paintedduring the Nayak period, in the sixteenth century. Thanksto the cleaning of the surface painting, examples of thegreat tradition of painting during the Chola period wereunveiled. The paintings show narrations and aspectsrelated to Lord Shiva, Shiva in Kailash, Shiva asTripurantaka, Shiva as Nataraja, a portrait of the patronRajaraja and his mentor Kuruvar, dancing figures, etc.

Vijayanagara Murals

The paintings of Brihadeswara temple exemplify thestylistic maturity the artists evolved over the years. Sinuouspre-determined flow of lines, supple modelling of figures,

Dakshinamurty, Vijayanagar, Lepakshi

2019-2020

LATER MURAL TRADITIONS 65

elongation of the physiognomic features of human figures—all these represent the perfection the Chola artist hadachieved during the period on the one hand and the phaseof transition on the other. With the decline of power of theChola dynasty in the thirteenth century, the VijayanagaraDynasty (fourteenth-sixteenth centuries) captured andbrought under its control the region from Hampi to Trichywith Hampi serving as its capital. Many paintings survivein a number of temples. The paintings at Tiruparakunram,near Trichy, done in the fourteenth century represent theearly phase of the Vijayanagara style. In Hampi, theVirupaksha temple has paintings on the ceiling of itsmandapa narrating events from dynastic history andepisodes from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. Amongthe important panels are the ones which show Vidyaranya,the spiritual teacher of Bukkaraya Harsha, being carriedin a palanquin in a procession and the incarnations ofVishnu. The faces of the figures are shown in profile, withlarge frontal eyes. The figures have narrow waists.

In Lepakshi, near Hindupur, in present Andhra Pradesh,there are glorious examples of Vijayanagara paintings onthe walls of the Shiva temple.

In keeping with the tradition, the Vijayanagara paintersevolved a pictorial language wherein the faces are shownin profile and figures and objects two-dimensionally. Linesbecome still but fluid, compositions appear in rectilinearcompartments. These stylistic conventions of the precedingcenturies were adopted by artists in various centres inSouth India as can be seen in the paintings of the NayakaPeriod.

Paintings of the Nayaka dynasty in the seventeenth andeigtheenth centuries are seen in Thiruparakunram,

Ladies attending Parvati, Virbhadra Temple, Lepakshi

2019-2020

AN INTRODUCTION TO INDIAN ART66

Sreerangam and T iruvarur in Tamil Nadu. InThiruparakunram, paintings are found of two differentperiods—of the fourteenth and the seventeenth century.Early paintings depict scenes from the life of VardhamanMahavira.

The Nayaka paintings depict episodes from theMahabharata and the Ramayana and also scenes fromKrishna-leela. In Tiruvarur, there is a panel narrating thestory of Muchukunda. In Chidambaram, there are panels ofpaintings narrating stories related to Shiva and Vishnu—Shiva as Bhikshatana Murti, Vishnu as Mohini, etc.

In the Sri Krishna temple at Chengam in Arcot Districtthere are 60 panels narrating the story of the Ramayanawhich represent the late phase of Nayaka paintings.

The examples cited above suggest that Nayaka paintingswere more or less an extension of the Vijayanagara stylewith minor regional modifications and incorporations. Thefigures, mostly in profile, are set against a flat background.Male figures are shown slim-waisted but with less heavyabdoman as compared to those in Vijayanagara. The artist,as in the previous centuries and following traditions, hastried to infuse movement and make the space dynamic.The painting of Nataraja at Tiruvalanjuli is a good example.

Kerala Murals

Kerala painters (during the period from the sixteenth tothe eighteenth century) evolved a pictorial language andtechnique of their own while discriminately adoptingcertain stylistic elements from Nayaka and Vijayanagaraschools. The painters evolved a language taking cues fromcontemporary traditions, like Kathakali and kalam ezhuthu

Venugopal, Sri Rama Temple, Triprayar

2019-2020

LATER MURAL TRADITIONS 67

EXERCISE

1. What are the main features of Badami cave paintings?

2. Write an essay on Vijayanagara paintings.

3. Describe the mural traditions of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Krishna playing flute,

accompanied by Gopikas,

Krishna temple,

Pundareekapuram

(ritual floor painting of Kerala), using vibrantand luminous colours, representing humanfigures in three-dimensionality. Most of thepaintings are seen on the walls of shrinesand cloister walls of temples and some insidepalaces. Thematically too, paintings fromKerala stand apart. Most of the narrationsare based on those episodes from Hindumythology which were popular in Kerala. Theartist seems to have derived sources fromoral traditions and local versions of theRamayana and the Mahabharata for paintednarration.

More than sixty sites have been foundwith mural paintings which include threepalaces—Dutch palace in Kochi,Krishnapuram palace in Kayamkulam andPadmanabhapuram palace. Among the siteswhere one can see the mature phase ofKerala’s mural painting tradition arePundareekapuram Krishna temple,Panayanarkavu, Thirukodithanam, TriprayarSri Rama temple and TrissurVadakkunathan temple.

Even today we observe that muralpainting on interior and exterior walls of houses in villagesor havelis is prevalent in different parts of the country.These paintings are usually made by women either at thetime of ceremonies or festivals or as a routine to cleanand decorate the walls. Some of the traditional forms ofmurals are pithoro in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat,Mithila painting in northern Bihar’s Mithila region, warli

paintings in Maharashtra, or simply paintings on thewalls, be it in a village of Odisha or Bengal, MadhyaPradesh or Chhattisgarh.

2019-2020