Technique of the Painting Process in the Temple of Vijayalaya Cholisvaram in Pudukottah State

Abstract

THE ruined temple of Vijayalaya Cholisvaram is situated in the village of Narthamalai (10° 30' N., 78° 45' E.) in Pudukottah State in South India, being about five miles to the north-east of Sittanna-vasal¹ and about 33 miles, as the crow flies, from Tanjore². The temple was probably built in the ninth century A.D. during the time of Vijayalaya, a king of the Chola Dynasty of South India. The details of the paintings, however, have either faded or disappeared, due to the vicissitudes of time and environment, so that it is very difficult to judge of the art as such. But circumstantial evidences go to show that the paintings were probably executed during the eleventh–twelfth centuries A.D., and at any rate, their date cannot be later than the fourteenth century A.D. If they belong to the eleventh–twelfth centuries A.D., they should have been contemporaneous with the Chola paintings in the Brihadisvara temple² at Tanjore.