The art and architecture of India - Buddhist, Hindu, Jain (Art Ebook)

CHAPTER 19
PAINTING OF THE PERIOD OF THE HINDU DYNASTIES
WALL-PAINTINGS AND MINIATURES
Although probably at one time the great temples
of the Hindu Renaissance were many of them
decorated with wall-paintings both on the
interior and exterior of sanctuaries and mandapas,
the actual remains of late painting in India
are fragmentary indeed. Among the few remnants
of post-Gupta wall-painting are the
decorations of a Jain temple at Sittanavasal,
near Madras. These pictures do not lend themselves
to photographic reproduction, so a
drawing of the main ceiling is shown here [272].
The composition represents a celestial region in
the form of a pond in which apsaras, geese,
elephants, etc., are sporting in a thicket of
enormous lotus-blossoms and fronds. The style
perpetuates the Ajanta wall-paintings of the late
Gupta and early Chalukya types, both in drawing
and colouring. As even the line-drawing
shows, the fanciful and intricate setting is portrayed
with the greatest clarity and a feeling for
the decorative possibilities of the multiple lotusflowers
and buds set off against the enormous
272. Sittanavasal, Jain temple, ceiling painting