Kerala Mural paintings

Kerala Mural paintings

Subject :  History

Section : Art and Culture

Concept :

• Pooja Kashyap, a noted artist in Kerala Mural Paintings, who teaches History at Delhi’s Gargi College is exhibiting 30 of her works in acrylic paint, this week at the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS).

Kerala Mural Paintings

• Kerala painters (16th to 18th century) evolved a pictorial language and technology of their own while discriminately adopting certain stylistic elements from Nayaka and Vijayanagara schools.
• It is one of the Later Mural traditions in India.
• Later Mural Traditions
• Even after Ajanta, very few sites with paintings have survived which provide valuable evidences to reconstruct the tradition of painting.
• The sculptures too were plastered and painted and the tradition of cave excavation continued further in many places where sculpting and painting were done simultaneously.
• The painters evolved a language taking cues from contemporary traditions like Kathakali and Kalam Ezhuthtuusing vibrant and luminous colours, representing human figures in three dimensions.
• Most of the paintings are seen on the shrine walls, cloister walls of temples and some inside the palaces.
• Thematically too, paintings from Kerala stand apart.
• Most of the narrations are based on those episodes from Hindu mythology which were popular in Kerala.
• The artist seems to have derived sources from oral traditions and local versions of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata for painting narrations.
• Apart from the Mahabharata, Ramayana, and The Gita, some texts that inspire these paintings include 15th Century Tantrasamuchhaya on temple architecture by Narayana, 16th Century Shilparatna by Sreekumara, Kumara­sambhava by Kalidasa.
• More than 60 sites have been found with mural paintings.
• The important palaces where mural paintings can be found are :Dutch Palace, Kochi, Krishna Puram palace, Kayamkulam and Padmanabhapuram palace.
• The mature phase of Kerala’s mural tradition can be seen at Pundareekapuram Krishna Temple, Panayanarkavu, Thirukodithanam, Tripayar Sri Rama temple and Thrissur Vadakkunnatha temple.