Mural Painting

• Indian Mural Paintings are paintings made on the walls of caves and palaces.
• The earliest evidence of the murals is the beautiful frescoes painted on the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, the Bagh caves and Sittanvasal cave.
• In the old scripts and literature, there was much evidences of mural paintings.
  • According to Vinaya Pitaka, the noted courtesan of Vaishali – Amrapali employed painters to paint the kings, traders and merchants of that time on the walls of her palace.

What is the Technique of Indian Wall Paintings?

• The technique and process of making Indian wall paintings has been discussed in the Vishnudharamotaram, a Sanskrit text of the 5^th/6^th century CE.
• The process of these paintings appears to have been the same in all the early examples that have survived with an only exception in the Rajarajeshwara temple at Tanjore which is supposed to be done in a true fresco method over the surface of the rock.
• Most of the colours were locally available.
• Brushes were made up from the hair of animals, such as goat, camel, mongooses, etc.
• The ground was coated with an exceedingly thin layer of lime plaster over which paintings were drawn in water colours.
• In the true fresco method, the paintings are done when the surface wall is still wet, so that the pigments go deep inside the wall surface.
• The other method of painting which was followed in most of the cases of Indian painting is known as tempora.
  • It is a method of painting on the lime plastered surface which has been allowed to dry first and then drenched with fresh lime water.
  • On the surface, thus obtained, the artist proceeded to sketch.
  • The principal colours in use were red ochre, vivid red (vermilion), yellow ochre, indigo blue, lapis lazuli, lamp black (Kajjal), chalk white, terraverte and green.

What is a Mural?

• A mural is any piece of artwork that is painted or applied directly on a wall.
• More broadly, mural art also appears on ceilings or any other large permanent surface.
• Mural paintings usually have the distinguishing characteristic of having the architectural elements of the space they are painted on being harmoniously incorporated into the picture.
• There are many techniques used for mural painting, of which the fresco is just one.
• A mural, therefore, is a general term for a wall painting, whilst a fresco is a specific term.