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CHAPTER 30]
MURAI. PAINTINGS
as well as the life of Neminatha himself, are all graphically portrayed in a long series with elaborate painted labels in Tamil, clearly explaining each scene. The painting of labels had become a usual feature in the Vijayanagara period, as observed at several other places like Chidambaram, Tiruvalur, etc. Even in temple-hangings the painting of labels became a regular mode of explaining the themes. The labels were usually either in Telugu or in Tamil according to the region. Here at Tirupparuttikkunram they are in Tamil and the letters themselves are in Tamil-Grantha.
Episodes from the life of Rşabhadeva depict how the Laukantika-devas reminded Rṣabhadeva that it was time he renounced the world to proceed for dikṣā (plate 261), how Kaccha, Mahākaccha and others, deeply devoted to him, also tried to renounce but were unable to bear the intense cold and pangs of hunger and returned to their clothes and food, how Nami and Vinami pleaded with Ṛşabhadeva in deep contemplation to give them their share of his kingdom (plate 262) and how Dharanendra offered them the sovereignty of the Vidyadhara world, the first carya of Rṣabhadeva--all of them narrated at great length (plate 263).
In the story of Kṛṣṇa, the cousin of Neminatha, Baladeva receiving the new-born baby, crossing the Yamuna, and giving the child to Nandagopa, and the bāla-lilās of Kṛṣṇa (plate 264), his killing the various Asuras, Sakata, Dhenuka, etc., the uprooting of the yamala-trees as he crawled along, pulling the mortar to which he was chained, and so forth, a whole group of cows, cowherds and milkmaids-all these are all vividly portrayed in this series. It is of interest to note the various customs, social modes, beliefs and faiths, ceremonies, religious functions, etc., in such depictions as the presentation of the pūrṇa-kumbha, flowers and other objects as a welcome, music and dance, auguring a festivity or a celebration of an event-all painted graphically in several panels. Detailed descriptions of the labels with their readings and an elaborate narration of the themes themselves are to be found in a monograph by Ramachandran entirely devoted to the Tirupparuttikkunram temple.1 The Nayaka phase of art is the last chapter of a glorious tradition that had continued during the centuries in south India and the Deccan.
C. SIVARAMAMURTI
1 T.N. Ramachandran, Tiruparuttikunram and its Temple, Bulletin of the Madras Government Museum, New Series, General Section, 1, 3, Madras, 1934.
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