*Fading colours
*
S. THEODORE BASKARAN
*A book on paintings in Tamil Nadu demystifies
the subject of temple
architecture and art history. *
*Pallava period: Parvathi mural at Panamalai, near Vellore.
*
SCULPTURES, both metal and stone, and architectural features
have withstood centuries of exposure to the elements and have
come down to us as heritage from a remarkable period of artistic
achievement in Tamil Nadu, but most of
the paintings, highly vulnerable to the ravages of time, have
totally been lost. Dressed rock surfaces came to be used as support'
for paintings only from the Pallava times, and the earlier works
done in natural caverns and on brick mortar walls and fabrics
have not weathered the centuries. Some fragments of murals of
the medieval period survive precariously in rock-cut caves and
temples.
*Chola period: Siva as Tripurantaka, Rajarajesvaram, Thanjavur.
*
The fact that monuments of the medieval period in Tamil Nadu
are predominantly of granite has, unfortunately, resulted in the
projection of a lopsided view of the artistic tradition of that
period, a view that conjures up an image of a society full of
sculptures and temples. While works of granite, both sculptures
and buildings, have withstood the elements, paintings, though
much more prevalent, have been lost. In fact, much of the sculptural
features now seen in temples were once painted. In the 7th century,
a treatise on painting, Dakshinachithra, was written, indicating
the height to which this art had evolved.
For I. Job Thomas, art historian and Director of the South Asian
Studies programme at Davidson College, South Carolina, the paintings
of Tamil Nadu have been a passion ever since he started his career
in the Madras museum. After taking his doctorate on Vijayanagar
murals under the guidance of the legendary Walter Spink in the
University of Michigan, Job Thomas kept up his
study of paintings in the temples of Tamil Nadu during his annual
visits to the State. He brings to bear all this scholarship in
his recent book Paintings in Tamil Nadu. His earlier work, Tiruvenkadu
Bronzes (1985, Cre-A, Chennai), reappraised some established views
on the art of South Indian bronzes.
*Chola period: Cheraman Perumal pursuing Sundaramurthy, Rajarajesvaram,
Thanjavur. *
Relying on jargon minimally, Job Thomas demystifies the subject
of temple architecture and art history by explaining the concepts
and features in reader-friendly language. With great ease he brings
art history to the non-specialist. The book is documented meticulously.
In some of the end notes, he traces the history of a subject or
explains with an example a point he has made in the main narrative.
For instance, he says that certain features of a temple hardly
receive any attention and cites the case of a
temple in Anamalai near Pollachi where an electrician found a
skeleton in the fourth floor of the tower. It was that of a man
who had apparently committed suicide in 2005. How close painting
was to the life of people in the ancient period can be
understood if literature is taken into consideration as a source
of information. The extensive research that is being done on Sangam
literature (300 B.C.- A.D. 300) and related works has facilitated
such a beginning. The impression gained from these literary sources
is that painting was practised more widely in a far more popular
way than other plastic arts. The art of
painting could be practised even by common people, while sculpture
and architecture were a different proposition altogether.
*Vijayanagar period: Agnila and Jain monks, at Tirumalai, near
Vellore. *
Beginning from rock art, covering even recently discovered sites,
the author goes on to the literary sources and then deals with
the murals of the Pallava, Chola and Vijayanagar periods and of
the Nayaks and the Marathas. Then he moves on to the (East India)
Company paintings and ends with the modern period. The history
of painting in Tamil Nadu is traced against the
backdrop of the historical developments of the respective period.
For instance, in the chapter on Chola paintings, he has reproduced
a copy of the newspaper clipping of The Hindu dated April 11,
1931, announcing the dramatic discovery of Chola frescoes in the
inner prakara of the temple. Similarly, he discusses the dynamics
of Anglo-French trade in South India at
the beginning of the chapter on Company paintings. The subject
of Company paintings has not received the scholarly attention
it
deserves. In fact, many of them are yet to be published. The author
points out that during this period, the perception of Tamils about
painting and painters underwent a change. The author points out
the difference in the approach of Indian artists and the newly
arrived British to art. When drawing a tree or a person,
Indian artists approached the subject more on a
philosophical than physical terms of mass, light, colour and likeness,
he observes. From Company paintings he moves on to the modern
period, touching upon the nationalist movement and the founding
of the School of Arts in Madras (now Chennai). The influence of
the Theosophical Society and Kalakshetra on the art scene is also
discussed.
*Pallava period: Somaskanda panel at Panamalai. *
The book is profusely illustrated with colour and black-and-white
photographs, line drawings and diagrams. Graphics are a strong
aspect of this book, in which the latest technology of digital
photography and colour separation has been used. The colour plates
have been reproduced very well. I was particularly struck by the
photograph of the Parvathi mural from the
Dhalagiriswarar temple of Panamalai. It captures effectively the
formal purity of Pallava lines and colours.
The Chola murals of Thanjavur are also sharp in their reproduction
and radiate the artistic brilliance of that era. The line drawing,
for which the author had commissioned artists, is a good technique
to study and reproduce the Nayak period paintings, which have
been done in comic strip style, often narrating mythological stories
and the lives of saints. These drawings are valuable documents
in themselves. The mural from the Pattiswaram temple depicting
the story of Siva and Vishnu assuming the forms of Bhikshadana
and Mohini respectively has been reproduced in line drawings in
two pages. A similar technique of line drawings is used to illustrate
the ceiling paintings from the Vardamana temple at Tiruparuthikunram,
near Kancheepuram. Job Thomas does not stop with describing a
painting but analyses it in depth, tracing influences and style.
In addition to providing scholarly analyses of the murals, the
book documents them in the form of photographs. Priceless paintings,
such as the Vijayanagar paintings at Tiruvellarai near Tiruchi,
have disappeared in front of our eyes. The late-Chola painting
showing the Sangama episode on the ceiling of the Tiruparuthikunram
temple was lost when it was being restored a few years ago. The
book carries a photograph of the original painting.
*Nayak period: Mohini episode, at the Nataraja temple, Chidambaram.
*
The murals face constant threat from man and nature. One never
knows when these murals will disappear when someone in power gets
enthusiastic about renovation. Recently, the local administration
dug a lake near the Sithannavasal cave and introduced boating
facilities to attract tourists. Vandalism had already taken a
heavy toll on the frescoes in that cave.
*Nayak period: A royal storeroom, at the Nataraja temple. *
With his mastery over the subject, Job Thomas is able to isolate
major trends and discuss stylistic differences confidently. Instead
of closing discussions on the subjects handled, this book will
open new areas of study. It will inject new enthusiasm into the
study of the art of Tamil Nadu. With meagre governmental funding,
archaeology and art history have long been neglected as subjects.
*Vijayanagar period: Kishkinda Kanda, the fourth of the seven
kandas in the Ramayana, illustrated in the Tiruvellarai temple.
The paintings have since disappeared. *
The question of how historians can utilise pictorial representation
as a source of historical information has not been examined by
scholars. From the early days of historical research in India,
the emphasis has been on words, such as inscriptions or despatches
during the Raj. One has to bear in mind that these inscriptions
are what the kings had ordered to be chiselled about
what they did, and therefore these represented their point of
view. Similarly, in the modern period, photographs of the 19th
and 20th centuries are waiting to be studied. The neglect of film
studies and the approach to cinema in literary terms are part
of this continuum.
*Vijayanagar period: Vali-Sugriva fight, at Pundarikaswami temple,
Tiruvellarai, near Tiruchi. *
An important dimension of the sources of information, that is,
visual material, has remained neglected. And this approach of
Job Thomas to the subject of paintings is refreshing. The ceiling
paintings of Vijayanagar vintage, from the Tenpurisvarar temple
at Pattiswaram, are a good example of a source providing insights
about a society. In the mural showing the Dharma Sarma episode,
the river Kaveri is depicted: there are the archakas along with
fisherfolk engaged in their work, and different kinds of fish,
crabs and other forms of life are seen. There is a portrait of
Madalavalli, a Devadasi, complete with her name written in Tamil.
She lived in Pattiswaram and sang praises of Siva in the temple
for several years. She is featured standing in front of the sanctum
holding a veena. The author presents his case eloquently and passionately.
One monument that receives close examination is the Pandyan rock-cut
cave at Sithannavasal and its frescoes. Among the monuments in
Tamil Nadu, this site has received the most attention from art
historians.
*Company period: Kalpavriksha, fabric painting. *
The author covers all the studies on the subject through a review
of earlier research and comes out with his own insights on the
pond scene painted on the ceiling of the outer hall. He begins
with the observations of Vengataranga Nayudu of Pudukottai museum
and discusses K.R. Srinivasan's arguments. He questions T.N. Ramachandran's
identification of the pond scene
as khatikabhumi. Relying on Tamil literary evidence, Job Thomas
concludes that the scene shows devotees offering lotus flowers
to the Tirthankaras in the morning. He also deals with the natural
cavern on top of the hill. There is evidence to show that the
interiors of these caverns, used as monasteries by Jain or Ajivika
monks, also bore murals. Along with Sithannavasal, the other two
Jain temples, the Kundavi Jinalaya built by Raja Raja Chola's
sister at Tirumalai and the Vardamana temple at
Tiruparuthikunram, also receive close attention from the author.
In Tirumalai, in addition to the constructed temple, there is
a natural cavern, the interior of which has fragments of late
Chola paintings. There are also murals of the Nayak period inside.
*Thumbnail sketches*
There is a very precious section of five pages of biographies
in which Job Thomas provides thumbnail sketches of some forgotten
doyens of Indian art history, including Jouveau Dubreuil, S.K.
Govindaswami, S. Paramasivan, Stella Kramrisch, T.N. Ramachandran,
C. Sivaramamurti and K.R. Srinivasan. Paramasivan, particularly,
did significant work as an archaeological chemist in the preservation
of paintings in Sithannavasal and Thanjavur and examined the technique
of painting. These are the pioneers who took the glory of South
Indian art to the outside world.
*Nayak period: Scene of a river, at the Tenpurisvarar temple,
Pattiswaram, near Thanjavur. *
The exhaustive bibliography could open new areas of research
and win converts to the fascinating field of art history. However,
the absence of an index is intriguing. In this age of word processing
and special tools to prepare an index, it would not have been
a difficult job. An index increases the utility of a book of this
nature manifold. While Chola bronzes are well known, very little
is known about the murals of Tamil Nadu. Of course, one cannot
put a mural in a box and ship it to New York for exhibition. So
writings, photographs and drawings relating to the subject meet
the need. Such books play the role of an archive of a kind also.
Without much activity the field of art history has been barren
in South India. In fact, in the last few decades there have been
very few studies. Basically, scholars have repeated the arguments
of the Jouveau Dubreuil school of temple study. This stimulating
study by Job Thomas can inject new enthusiasm into the study of
the art history of Tamil Nadu.
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