Painted Representations of Sacred Sites in the 18th-20th Centuries

Presenter:

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Abstract

A.L. Dallapiccola Painted representations of sacred sites in the 18th-20th centuries The poetic works of the alvars and the nayanmars created the sacred landscapes of the Tamil region between the sixth and the ninth century. Thus, specific sites sung by the poet saints became especially holy either to Vishnu or to Shiva. A number of these became relevant places of pilgrimage during the Chola period; further developments took place first under the Vijayanagara and, subsequently, under the Nayakas (mid-sixteenth to mid eighteenth century). Thanks to the benefactions of the Nattukottai Chettiars, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, a number of Shaiva sites underwent a further phase of renovation. The paper focuses on the development of the representation of selected holy sites from the Nayaka period - when the pictorial representations of either individual sites and their sthalapuranas, or of full sets, such as the 109 Vaishnava divyadeshams and the 275 Shaiva sthalams - became an important feature of the artistic repertoire - to the late 19th century. Sacred sites and individual murtis connected with them became a popular theme in the nineteenth century. The so-called ‘Thanjavur’ and Mysuru paintings, painted textiles, reverse glass paintings and albums are cases in point. This trend continues to the present day in ‘Calendar’ prints of various sizes, ranging from posters to pocket size Furthermore, in some temples three-dimensional figures set against a painted background, suggest the salient phases of the sthalapurana, enabling thus the viewer to immediately be able to identify the murti and the various stories connected the place.