Book Title: Indian Antiquary Vol 52
Author(s): Richard Carnac Temple, Stephen Meredyth Edwardes, Krishnaswami Aiyangar
Publisher: Swati Publications
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THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY
[MARCE, 1923
co-religionists and friends of Mahendravarman I., before he was converted by Appar. It was at one time fully decorated, but only the upper parts of the edifice are now intact. So there only remain the paintings on the ceilings, the capitals and the upper parts of the pillars.
The principal subject that is preserved is a grand fresco which adorns the whole extent of the ceiling of the verandah. This fresco represents a tank covered with lotus. In the midst of the flowers are found fish, geese, buffaloes, elephants and three men who are surely Jains holding lotuses in their hand. The skin of two of these Jains is dark-red in colour and that of the third is bright yellow. Their pose, their colouring and the sweetness of their countenance are indeed charming, and I regret very much my inability to give photographs of them here. Unfortunately red and yellow appear black in photographs and in this case the Jains are painted red, yellow and black, and photographs that I took with the greatest care failed to give any satisfactory result. Moreover, it is very difficult to make a copy of the fresco by hand, and it is almost impossible for anyone but a professional painter to reproduce a tableau without changing its expression. For my part it was impossible to make an exact copy of these paintings, whose charms consist in the versatility of design and in gradation of colouring with the half-tones and the light and shade. The fresco of "the Lotus tank" was probably some scene from the religious history of the Jains, which I do not know.
The decoration of the capitals of the two pillars of the façade is well-preserved, and consists of painted lotuses whose blooming stems intertwine with elegance. The pillars them. Helves are adorned with the figures of dancing-girls. The one on the right side is not wellpreserved but, luckily, the one on the left has escaped almost completely the ravages of man, rain and time. As this part of the monument is in full light, it was easy for me to make a tracing of it on transparent paper and thus obtain an almost perfect reproduction of it, given here. This charming dancing-girl is a dévadási of the temple, for in the seventh century, the Jains and the Buddhists had come to terms with God in regard to the introduction of dancing-girls into their austere religion.
· NON A PALLAVA FRESCO AT SITTANNAVÅSAL NHAR PUDUKKOTTAI.
