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CHAPTER 30
MURAL PAINTINGS
THOUGH THE ART OF PAINTING IN INDIA HAD A GREAT TRADITION BEHIND IT, nothing has survived to illustrate the early phase of Jaina paintings, the earliest extant examples dating only from Pallava times. Mahendravarman I, the Pallava king, who was a great artist, sculptor and painter, musician, poet, engineer and connoisseur of art, was originally a follower of Jainism but was converted to Saivism in the beginning of the seventh century by the Saiva saint Tirunāvukkaraśu or Appar, as he was affectionately termed by Tirujñāna-Sambandar, baby hymnist, who had been responsible for the conversion of the Pandyan king Niņraširnedumāran. It is well-known that Mahendravarman was the first in the south to introduce rock-cut architecture; he also bore the title citrakarāpuli, the tiger among painters. At Sittannavasal, not far from Tiruchchirappalli, he excavated a Jaina cave temple. For long, all the paintings in this cave were believed to have also been executed simultaneously with the excavation of the cave, that in the seventh century, but recently it has been found that there are two layers of paintings, an earlier and a later, as also an inscription of the ninth century, relating to the additions and renovations in the early Pandyan period. It is only a portion of the ceiling, originally painted and not completely covered by the Pāņdyan coat, that reveals patterns of the early Pallava painter (plate 259).
An inscription in Tamil verse near the southern end of the façade mentions a Jaina Acārya Ilan-Gautaman, hailing from Madurai, who renovated and embellished the ardha-mand apa and added a mukha-mand apa.
It is known to history that Arikesari Parāńkusa, a Pandyan king, contemporary with the last two Pallava kings, was a Jaina ruler, converted to the Brāhmaṇical faith by the baby saint Tirujñāna-Sambandar, in the later half of seventh century, just as the Pallava king Mahendravarman had been converted by Appar. There is thus observod in this cave a continuity of Jaina traditions.
ri For the alleged Jaina affiliation of the paintings in the Jogimāra-Sităbenga caves, see above, p. 10.-Editor.]
pa The Pallava origin of this cave-temple has been doubted. See above, chapter 19. -Editor)
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