Tanjore: A Portfolio of Paintings

Language: English
Pages: 8 (Throughout Color Illustrations)

About the Book

Tanjore or Thanjavur, one of the two major cultural zones and political powers and an eminent seat of religion in the southern part of the Indian subcontinent, particularly in Tamilnadu, had been for centuries a great centre of dance, music, architecture and arts - sculpture, woodcraft, metal-cast, mural painting, ete. Though, it was during the last two-three decades that the world bowed to its unique talent and for its brilliant miniature painting. Thanjavur's inherent creative genius turned to miniature painting around the 18th century; when its Maratha rulers brought to it some level of stability and economic prosperity. Temple architecture, or even the art of temple murals and sculptures, was yet a remote possibility, though in dance, music, philosophy, literature, arts and crafts, there was a renaissance and a new cultural and religious awareness was born. The recurring British inroads into lower Tamilnadu during the 17th and the early 18th century did not allow the Maratha rule to stabilise initially, but by the middle of the 18th century; the scenario largely changed. The staid Tamil culture, its rich literary traditions and teachings of domiciled Telugu and Kannada saints cross-fertilised with the Maratha spirit of adventure, their vigorous life-style and fervour of their devotional literature and religious legacy and out of it was born an era of over-all development and
great creativity. Serfoji II, who ruled for long fifty-five years (1778 to 1833 A.D.), himself a scholar and enthusiastic patron of arts, music and literature, was largely instrumental in reviving Thanjavur's past glory.
Tanjore miniature painting, the most glaring aspect of this renaissance, trans-shifting of a theme and the material medium representing
it from the temple wall to a small canvas - usually a piece of cloth, was in vogue by around the