7 - Painting

Summary

No Southern Indian temple or palace in these centuries would have been complete without vividly coloured paintings. They were executed either directly on plastered walls and ceilings to become part of the permanent decor of mandapas, corridors and audience halls, or on large cotton cloths to be displayed temporarily on special occasions. Other paintings were created on a diminutive scale, as is evident from paper manuscripts and portable wooden shrines with miniature illustrations. Whether intended for temples or monasteries, palaces or houses, such paintings were truly popular in appeal, serving as visual accompaniments to written and narrated epic stories.

Only a fraction of the pictorial heritage of this era survives, owing mainly to the fragile nature of the plaster, cotton and paper on to which paintings were made, all of which were adversely affected by light, heat and humidity. Temple ceilings are generally incomplete and in poor condition; some are irrevocably lost. The paintings in the Sveta Vinayaka temple at Tiruvalanjuli, 5 kilometres west of Kumbakonam, were totally removed in the last twenty years. (Knowledge about the Tiruvalanjuli cycle depends entirely on photographs; see Figs. 171 and 172.) With the exception of the residence of the Setupatis at Ramanathapuram, all palace murals have disappeared. That they existed at various royal sites is confirmed by the accounts of foreign visitors. Happily, some paintings have benefited from recent conservation efforts. The ceilings in the Virabhadra temple at Lepakshi have now been restored to their former glory (see Figs. 164 and 165).