The tradition of Mural Paintings in India

Indian artists, painters and patrons have always wanted beautification of the architecture; with exclusive designs and paintings, Indians have been painting the interior and exterior of architecture. Painting directly on the walls, interior and exterior, and wall ceilings with intriguing designs comes under the genre of mural paintings.

Romans, Egyptians, Greeks and Indians all have been patrons of this art in their architecture. Paintings including graphics, mythological characters, florals, or nature have been painted on the walls of these kingdom’s buildings. Mural paintings have depicted the scenes of day to day life of the human civilizations of that time or majorly the deities in India. 

The History Of Mural Art:

The mural art is believed to have originated during the palaeolithic age; these paintings were painted on the stones in caves, tombs, or ceilings. In India, many mural paintings were dated to the 14th century and were found in Kerala. These paintings are based on the “fresco secco”, which means that the natural colours and pigments were put into natural binders like calcium carbonate (lime) and put onto the dry plaster of walls.

Even the jataka tale paintings from Ajanta caves in Maharashtra dated to the 7th-century fall under the mural art genre. But the existence of murals in India is believed to be dated much before these, in around the 2nd century.

The famous murals of India are found in famous caves, on the palace’s walls of both Indian and Mughal kings, and in temples. Murals were considered sacred in temples, and murals of gods and goddesses were common, depicting mythology. 

Techniques Of Mural Prevalent In India:

Fresco secco: The natural colours and pigments were put into natural binders like calcium carbonate (lime) and put onto the dry plaster of walls. 

Buon fresco: in this method, natural colours and pigment were mixed into water to make paste according to need and then directly intricately painted on the plaster or dry lime, which then dries in hours, and the mural was formed. 

Mural Art Of India:

In India, majorly the mural art depicted deities, nature, or societal topics like depicting “Nitya karma” (preliminary daily chores as said by religious books), to taboo topics like sex. Visual art has been a tool in politics and forming ideologies, just like other, mural art also depicted a range of these topics, these paintings were either made by the free expression of artists or by demand of authority or public, to spread ideologies. 

The vishnudharmottara, silpasastra, etc., tell us about the richness of this art in India. Though mural art is found in India in various states, southern states are believed to have a comparatively larger number of these.

Some of the famous mural arts in India are:

• In the Jain cave in sittanavasal in Tamil Nadu, the mural painting consists of a very beautiful lotus on the ceiling, painted above the god tirthankar. The painting also inculcated the fauna, including fishes, elephants and other animals, depicting the liveliness of the world. 
• The Kailash Nath temple of Ellora was decorated with these mural paintings. 
• In Thanjavur, in the brihadeshwara temple, the temple was covered with murals depicting the royalty of the golden times of cholas.

Just like these, various paintings have been made. The special features of these paintings depended on the time at which they were made, the region in which they were made, and the theme on which they were made. Religious murals had beautiful depictions of deities and the stories associated with them.

In hilly northern areas, it was found that Buddhism had led to beautiful mural paintings in the region. The paintings for Hinduism depicted lord shiva and other gods in different avatars. 

The famous mural paintings of Kerala:

Like other murals in India, the murals of Kerala were majorly depicting religion. The book chitrasutram tells about the prevalence of the art, about the factors and reasons why these paintings were made, painter and painter’s freedom and connoisseurs.

The famous cave paintings of Kerala include lord shiva’s temple in ettumanoor, the depiction of Ramayana in Mattancherry palace, vaikom temple, pundarikapuram, the vadakkunnathan temple in Trichur, guruvayoor, aymanam, and Sri Padmanabha Swamy temple in Thiruvananthapuram. 

To preserve the rich culture and heritage, a mural art school called the “centre of study for mural paintings’ ‘ was established by the guruvayoor devaswom board. After the independence of India, this Kerala mural art was patronized, and temples were painted by this art.

The colours used in this mural were from red and yellow laterite soils, white from lime, and black from the oil-soot lamp, Indian indigo and other combinations were made to give the colour palette. 

The theme of colours depended on the type or theme of the painting. 

Conclusions:

Mural art has been a global art form. Still, the Indian mural is a very exclusive art, and that too is a collection of different forms of paintings according to the regions in which they were made in India or the phase of history in which they were made.

These Indian murals are one of the glories of Indian culture and heritage.