Eternal India Encyclopedia

temple at Tiruvallamala, the Dasavatara story is splendidly sculp-

tured in wood.

In the temple at Tiruvannur, there are twenty-one panels repre-

senting the story of Kirata in the first Prasada.

Twenty four panels of wood carving found in the Sri Rama

temple at Triprayar representing the Navagrahas on the ceiling of

the Namaskara Mandapa and episodes from the

Ramayana

story

have grace and beauty.

The Sri Rama temple at Tiruvangad has the best specimens of

wood-work illustrating the story of

Ramayana

on the ceiling of the

Namaskara Mandapa.

In the temple at Trichambaram, the ceiling of the Mandapa is

lavishly decorated with carved figures illustrating stories from the

Bhagavata.

Technically the wood

carving of Kerala is remarkable for its

composition. The sameattention is bestowed on the carving of

even insignificant items as the most important ones.

The subject of Nataraja ap-

pears in Kerala in stone, wood,

metal, ivory and mural painting.

Another image of Nataraja, in the

Ranga Vilasom Palace in Trivan-

drum, is a striking example of a

decorative setting of the Lord of the

Dance in wood carving. Probably

the finest single work in wood in

Kerala is the midi8th C frieze,

around the outside of the shrine of

the Ramaswami temple at Pad-

manabhapuram. The frieze is in 45

panels, each slightly under 7 feet in

length and one and a half feet in height, a total length of about 300

ft of consistent masterly craftsmanship.

An interesting appendix to the

Ramayana

frieze above is the

single figure of Rama, the perfect king, that occupied* a place in the

shrine room of the palace of Maharaja Swati Tirunal (1827-47) the

famous music composer, in Trivandrum. It is now in the Ranga

Vilasom Palace.

PAINTING

The art of painting in India is known to have originated from

primitive line drawings, such as are seen in the cave shelters in the

Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh and in Bhimbetka near the

village of Singhanpur in Madhya Pradesh etc. These drawings

mainly depict hunting scenes, animals, men dancing and burial

scenes in red, black, pink, green, blue and yellow. Numerous refer-

ences in early literature prove the great progress in painting, but it

is the murals in the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, Udayagiri and

Khandagiri that testify this statement. The approximate dates of

the Ajanta caves are : caves 9, 10 (100 B.C.-100 A.D.); 16 &

17,4,6,11,15 (470-500 A.D.); pillars in cave 10-350 A.D.; caves 1,2

(626-628 A.D.)

The subject consists of Buddhist

Jataka

stories, the events

from the life of the Buddha and his miracles. The important sub-

jects in cave 10 are the Shyama Jataka, Sadanta Jataka, the Bodhi-

sattva; in cave 16 is the descent of the Buddha from Tushita

Heaven, The Dying Princess; in cave 17 is the Mother and Child

ART

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before the Buddha, Simhala

Avadana, Apsara; in cave 1,

Bodhisattva Padmapani, birth of

the Buddha etc. In cave 17 there is

a panel showing the subjugation of

the mad elephant Nalagiri by the

Buddha, one of the eight miracles

of the Buddha. Devadatta, the

jealous cousin of the Buddha, once

let loose an infuriated elephant

called Nalagiri on the Buddha. But

the elephant, on reaching the Bud-

dha, prostrated and the Buddha

stroked his head with great com-

passion.

Although much of the paintings have been damaged the remain-

ing ones occupy the entire walls of the caves, the pillars, ceilings,

giving a theatrical effect. Scenes after scenes, narrative panels

have been woven into a continuous stream moving not sequentially,

but woven into a web. To identify the

jataka

story, one has to know

the story. Scenes are divided through architectural devices; the

paintings are flat with no perspective, modelling is achieved

through the lines and tonal modes. The paintings blend sensuous

with spiritual moods. They are char-

acterised by ample naturalism, fluid-

ity and reveal the rhythmic line that

connects the figures and scenes. The

technique of painting is tempera, in

which the painting is done on a dry

plastic surface with the help of a wa-

ter-soluble binding medium. Ajanta

had a wide influence; on the painting at

DonHuang in China, Bagh in Madhya

Pradesh, in the Jain caves at Sittan-

navasal, Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu etc.

A few Buddhist palm-leaf manu-

scripts have been found in Eastern

India, as links from Ajanta, belonging to the Taranath school. In the

museum of Fine Arts, Boston is the

Ashta-Sahasrika Prajna -Par-

amita

with 18 miniature Jain paintings showing the life of the

Buddha.

Between the 11th to the 14th centuries, wooden book-covers

and Palmyra strips were used for manuscript illustrations which

were confined to canonical works, such as the Jain Kalpasutra and

Kalkacharya Kathas. The patrons were wealthy Jain merchants

and bankers, although Gujarat was ruled by Muslim Sultans. How-

ever, the courts of the Sultans attracted talented people. Illumi-

nated Persian manuscripts reached their courts from Baghdad,

Bokhara and Samarkand. The Sahi types and the border illustra-

tions in some Kalpasutra and Kalkacharya Kathas show consider-

able borrowing of Persian motifs. In these, scarlet is used as back-

ground, text in silver ink against a dull maroon background, use of

gold shows the opulence of Jain merchants, shade of sandal and

yellow for body colour, and men wear long hair and pigtails. Women

have thin waists and heavy lips. In the

Chaurapanchasika

group of

miniatures the eyes are exaggerated through extension, and

women wear short sarees. Although the main figures are stiff the

dancing girls appear to have freedom. The Bhagawata Purana,

which is the crowning achievement of this group, marked a new