Kerala mural paintings are the ancient way of depicting Hindu mythology in Kerala. These paintings in the form of frescos, were painted on the walls of ancient temples and palaces.
One of the oldest relics of Kerala’s style of murals can be found in the cave temple of Thirunadhikkara. The mural paintings of Kerala are mostly from the 14th Century AD. There are over 150 temples in Kerala which have ancient mural art forms.
The mural paintings of Kerala remains the most iconic symbol of the region’s culture and artistic traditions. The oldest of India’s ‘drawing’ tradition could be the Jataka Tales etched on the walls of the Ajanta caves. From there, the Buddhist monks took it to various parts of the world, wherein the art form evolved through a synthesis of cultures.
Technique
Traditionally the painting involves four different processes,
1. Preparation of the ground (granite and laterite walls) – For preparing a wall, three different stages of plastering was required: first plaster was the mixture of lime and clean sand in the ratio 1:2. Second was plaster of a mixture of lime and sand in the ratio 1:2, and last on was using cotton as it gives gleaming white texture to the wall. After this process, the wall was washed many times with the mixture of quick lime and the juice of very tender coconut.
2. Sketching of the outline of the relics to be painted
3. Application of colours - Traditional murals used 5 colours i.e. red, yellow, green, black and white, white being the colour of the wall itself. Colours are prepared from vegetable and mineral pigments. Wooden utensils are used for mixing the colours and the binding media used is derived from tender coconut water and extracts from the Neem tree.
The characters in the murals are coloured according to their characteristics as illustrated in the relevant Hindu mythological scriptures. Spiritual, divine and dharmic characters (satwika) are depicted in shades of green. Those influenced towards power & materialistic wealth (rajasic) are painted in shades of red to golden yellow. Evil, wicked and mean characters (tamasic) are generally painted in white or black.
There are two styles of mural paintings according to the usage of colours. One is the Fresco style where colours are applied applied on a slightly wet surface. The one where the colours are used on a dry surface is the dry fresco style.
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