Fine Arts: Class 11 — Chapter 5: Later Mural Traditions

• The Royal Patron: Cave excavation and mural painting were patronized directly by King Mangalesha, the younger son of King Pulakesi I and brother of Kirtivarman I.
• Cave No. 4 Epigraph: An inscription dated explicitly to $578\text{--}579\text{ CE}$ records Mangalesha's devout Vaishnava affiliation, dedicating the complex to Vishnu and establishing it popularly as the Vishnu Cave.

Mural preservation is limited to fragments on the vaulted roof of the front assembly hall (Mandapa):

• Palace Documentations: The primary panel records a grand palace scene depicting King Kirtivarman I seated with his queen and a retinue of feudatories intently watching a dynamic dance performance.
• Divine Assemblages: The corner segments of the composition display the multi-limbed figure of Lord Indra surrounded by his celestial retinue.
• Aesthetic Continuation: Stylistically, the Badami paintings represent an organic southward extension of the classic Ajanta school. Figures feature fluid forms, compact composition, and remarkably sinuous linework. Human faces have large eye-sockets, half-closed eyes, and slightly protruding lower lips. The master artisans created three-dimensional volume purely through strategic line weight and contour treatments.

• Mahendravarman I: Ruling in the 7th century, this monarch initiated structural and rock-cut shrines at Panamalai, Mandagapattu, and Kanchipuram. His Mandagapattu inscription records highly creative titles, including Vichitrachitta (curious-minded), Chitrakarapuli (tiger among artists), and Chaityakari (tempie builder).
• Panamalai Devini: A beautifully preserved fragment at Panamalai displays a female divinity drawn with exceptional grace, supple body lines, and an elongated torso mimicking contemporary rock sculptures.
• Kanchipuram Shrines: Later murals patronized by King Rajasimha (Narasimhavarman II) depict a large-faced, round-featured representation of the Somaskanda theme, displaying highly rhythmic lines and a marked increase in surface ornamentation.

The 9th-century Jain cave shrines at Sittanavasal preserve important early medieval Pandya mural traditions on the ceilings, brackets, and veranda pillars:

• Celestial Apsaras: Veranda pillars display fluidly dancing celestial nymphs. Their contours are firmly defined in sharp vermilion red pigment laid out against a soft, light plaster background.
• Anatomical and Facial Conventions: Torsos are rendered in warm yellow ochre with subtle, delicate highlights. Limbs are supple and captured mid-sway to imply rhythmic dance velocity. Faces feature elongated eyes that occasionally protrude off the face structure—a stylization that became a hallmark of later South Indian and Deccani manuscript schools.

The Chola state reached its zenith in the 11th century under King Rajaraja Chola and his successors, erecting massive granite complexes decorated with highly mature classical artwork.

• The Ambient Passageway: The primary Chola murals are located within the narrow, dark circumambulatory corridor wrapping directly around the inner sanctum of the Brihadeswara Temple at Thanjavur.
• Stratigraphic Preservation: When discovered, the walls contained two separate layers of paint. The topmost layer was added in the 16th century during the Nayaka Period. Painstaking conservation and cleaning successfully exposed the older, vibrant 11th-century Chola layer beneath.
• Iconographic Themes: The compositions depict expansive narratives of Shaivism: Lord Shiva residing in his heavenly abode of Mount Kailash, Shiva as the fierce destroyer Tripurantaka, and Shiva executing the cosmic dance as Nataraja. It also preserves a rare historical portrait of the patron king, Rajaraja Chola, standing beside his spiritual guru and mentor, Kuruvar Dever.
• Aesthetic Qualities: Highly advanced sinuous linework, elongated facial modeling, and an intricate sense of physical grace that marks the complete maturity of classical South Indian painting.

With their imperial capital centered at Hampi, the Vijayanagara rulers consolidated power from Hampi to Trichy, evolving a highly stylized, graphic visual vocabulary.

• Early Phase (Thiruparakunram): 14th-century panels painted near Trichy capture early stylistic formats, primarily executing extensive life narratives of the Jain Tirthankara Vardhamana Mahavir.
• Hampi Virupaksha Mandapa: The assembly hall ceiling is completely covered with large narrative panels documenting dynastic history alongside epic scenes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. A key panel shows the holy sage Vidyaranya (the primary spiritual mentor of King Bukkaraya Harsha) being carried in an imperial palanquin procession.
• Lepakshi Shrines: The walls and ceilings of the Veerabhadra Shiva Temple at Lepakshi (Andhra Pradesh) preserve the most vibrant phase of late Vijayanagara painting, depicting figures like the seated Dakshinamurti form of Shiva.
• Stylistic Shifts: Transitioning from older classical modeling, figures are represented in strict two-dimensional flatness. Faces are shown almost entirely in profile with massive, wide-open frontal eyes. Torsos are stylized with unnaturally narrow, slim waists. Compositions are neatly arranged inside rectangular frames or compartments.

The Nayaka style represents a direct continuation and regional adaptation of the older Vijayanagara flat-background layout, distributed across sites like Srirangam, Tiruvarur, Chidambaram, and Chengam.

• Thiruparakunram & Tiruvarur: Thiruparakunram houses overlapping 14th-century and 17th-century layers, where the Nayaka panels depict the Mahabharata and Krishna-leela cycles. Tiruvarur preserves a unique narrative panel tracing the mythical story of King Muchukunda.
• Chidambaram Panels: Narrate highly complex overlapping myths of Shaivism and Vaishnavism side-by-side, notably depicting Shiva as the wandering beggar Bhikshatana Murti and Vishnu transformed as the enchantress Mohini.
• Chengam Sri Krishna Temple: Houses a late-phase continuous narrative of 60 individual panels illustrating the complete story of the Ramayana which represent the late phase of Nayaka paintings.
• Aesthetic Refinement: While maintaining profile alignment against solid, flat color fields, the Nayaka painters reduced the heavy, protruding abdominal volumes seen in Hampi. The artist infused movement and made the space dynamic (e.g., the Nataraja at Tiruvalanjuli).

• Performative Influences: The stylized facial expressions, dramatic hand gestures, and heavy, elaborate headgears are derived directly from the classical dance-drama tradition of Kathakali.
• Ritual Influences: The application of rich, organic, luminous color tones and heavily loaded outlines stems from Kalam Ezhuthu (the traditional ritual floor painting of Kerala), representing human figures in three-dimensionality.
• Textual Sources: Narratives are derived from local oral storytelling traditions and regional vernacular versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, rather than standard Sanskrit texts.

The Kerala mural tradition has been mapped across more than 60 historical sites, including three prominent royal palaces:

• Palatial Structures: The Mattancherry Dutch Palace in Kochi (housing the Ramayana panels), the Krishnapuram Palace in Kayamkulam, and the Padmanabhapuram Palace.
• Sacred Temples: The mature phase of execution is preserved at the Pundareekapuram Krishna Temple (notably the master panel of Krishna playing the flute accompanied by Gopikas), Panayanarkavu, Thirukodithanam, Triprayar Sri Rama Temple (housing the Venugopal form), and the Thrissur Vadakkunathan Temple.