Murals at Badami Cave Temples, Karnataka

Although the Badami Cave Temples are primarily famous for their sculptures, they also contain important mural paintings. Despite losing much of their original grandeur, these murals provide insight into the artistic excellence of the period and are among the earliest surviving Hindu paintings. Dating to the 6th–7th century AD, the murals depict various subjects and resemble the traditions of Ajanta and Bagh.

The human figures are shown with graceful and compassionate expressions, large half-closed eyes, and protruding lips. The themes include paintings of Chalukyan kings, Jain saints renouncing worldly life, Shiva and Parvati, Puranic events, and various deities. Cave No. 3 is particularly notable for its mural depicting four-armed Brahma seated on a swan.

Jogimara Cave Paintings

Jogimara Cave is an artificially carved cave located in the Surguja district of Chhattisgarh, dating back to around 1000–300 BC. It contains a few paintings and inscriptions narrating a love story written in Brahmi script. The cave is believed to have been attached to an amphitheatre, and the paintings were created to decorate the chamber. The subjects include dancing couples and animals such as elephants and fish. The figures are outlined in red, with the use of white, yellow, and black colours. The nearby Sitabenga rock-cut theatre is also significant.

Lepakshi Paintings

Located in the Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh, the Lepakshi mural paintings were executed on the walls of the Veerabhadra Temple during the 16th century under the Vijayanagara Empire. These paintings follow religious themes drawn from the Ramayana, Mahabharata, and incarnations of Vishnu. A distinctive feature of Lepakshi paintings is the near absence of primary colours, especially blue. The figures and costumes are outlined in black, and the paintings reflect a decline in artistic quality compared to earlier traditions.

Ravan Chhaya Rock Shelter

Located in the Keonjhar district of Odisha, the Ravan Chhaya rock shelter contains ancient fresco paintings on a half-opened umbrella-shaped rock formation. It is believed to have served as a royal hunting lodge. The most notable painting is a royal procession dating back to the 7th century. Remains of Chola period paintings from the 11th century are also found here.

Sittanavasal Cave (Arivar Koil) Paintings

Located about 16 km northwest of Pudukkottai town in Tamil Nadu, these famous rock-cut caves are known for their Jain mural paintings. These murals closely resemble the paintings of Ajanta and Bagh. The paintings are found on the walls, ceilings, and pillars, and their central theme is Jain Samavasarana (the preaching hall).

Some scholars attribute these caves to the Pallava period, when King Mahendravarman I excavated the temple, while others believe they belong to the 7th century Pandya period when the shrine was renovated. The paintings were executed using vegetable and mineral dyes applied on a thin layer of wet lime plaster. Common colours include yellow, green, orange, blue, black, and white.

The central element of the Sittanavasal paintings is a lotus pond from which monks are shown collecting flowers. Ducks, swans, fishes, and animals are also depicted. This scene represents Samavasarana, the divine audience hall where Tirthankaras delivered sermons after attaining kevala-jnana. Bulls, elephants, apsaras, and gods are shown gathered to witness this grand event.

Armamalai Cave Paintings

Situated in the Vellore district of Tamil Nadu, these natural caves were converted into a Jain temple in the 8th century. Unbaked mud structures within the cave served as resting places for Jain saints. The beautiful and colourful paintings on the walls and roof depict tales of the Ashtadik Palakas (deities protecting the eight directions) and themes related to Jainism.

Bagh Cave Paintings

Representing an extension of the Ajanta School, the Bagh Caves in Madhya Pradesh rank quite close to the Ajanta Caves in terms of design, execution, and decoration. The main difference is that the figures in Bagh paintings are more tightly modelled, have stronger outlines, and appear more earthly and human in nature. Cave No. 4, known as Rang Mahal, contains beautiful murals on its walls depicting Buddhist themes and Jataka tales similar to those at Ajanta. Although now scanty and decayed, these paintings depict religious themes in the light of contemporary lifestyles, making them more secular in nature.

Ellora Cave Paintings

The mural paintings in the Ellora Caves are found in five caves and are mostly limited to the Kailasa Temple. These murals were executed in two phases. The first phase of paintings was done during the carving of the caves, while the second phase was completed several centuries later.

The earlier paintings depict Vishnu with his consort Lakshmi, borne through the clouds by Garuda, the celestial bird. The later paintings, executed in the Gujarati style, depict processions of Shaiva holy men. The paintings at Ellora are associated with all three religions—Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism.

Some prominent Ellora cave paintings include images of Goddess Lakshmi and Lord Vishnu, images of Lord Shiva with his followers, and beautiful and graceful Apsaras.

Ajanta Cave Paintings

One of the oldest surviving murals of the Indian subcontinent, the Ajanta Caves were carved in the 4th century AD out of volcanic rocks. It consists of a set of 29 caves carved in a horse-shoe shape. These caves are quite popular for their exquisite mural paintings that took around four to five centuries to complete under the reign of the Mauryan Empire. Murals in Cave No. 9 and 10 belong to the Sunga period, while the rest belong to the Gupta period. The paintings in Cave No. 1 and 2 are the most recent of the caves in Ajanta.

The walls of the caves have both murals and fresco paintings (painted on wet plaster). They use the tempera style, i.e., use of pigments. The paintings portray human values and the social fabric along with styles, costumes, and ornaments of that period. Emotions are expressed through hand gestures. The unique feature of the paintings is that each female figure has a unique hairstyle. Even animals and birds are shown with emotions.

The common themes of these paintings range from Jataka stories to the life of Buddha and elaborate decorative patterns of flora and fauna. Graceful poses of humans and animals adorn the walls of the caves. The medium of painting was vegetable and mineral dyes. The outline of the figures is in red ochre, with contours of brown, black, or deep red.

Some important paintings at Ajanta are scenes from the Jataka stories of the Buddha’s former lives as a Bodhisattva, the life of Gautama Buddha, and paintings of various Bodhisattvas in tribhanga pose in Cave No. 1 such as Vajrapani (protector and guide, a symbol of Buddha’s power), Manjusri (manifestation of Buddha’s wisdom), and Padmapani (Avalokitesvara), symbol of Buddha’s compassion. Other notable paintings include The Dying Princess in Cave No. 16, the scene of Shibi Jataka where King Shibi offered his own flesh to save the pigeon, and the scene of Matri-Poshaka Jataka where the ungrateful person saved by an elephant gives out his whereabouts to the king.

Mural paintings in India

 The works on the walls or a solid structure are referred to as Murals. These have existed in India since ancient times and can be dated between 10th century BC and 10th century AD. The evidence of such paintings can be found at several locations in India. The beauty and the exquisiteness of mural paintings can be seen in places like Ajanta, Armamalai Cave, Ravan Chhaya Rock shelter, Bagh caves, Sittanavasal caves and Kailasanatha temple in Ellora. Most of the mural paintings are either in natural caves or in rock-cut chambers. The paintings follow a theme, the most common being Hindu, Buddhist and Jain. Apart from this, such paintings were also made to adorn any mundane premise. An example of such a work can be seen in the ancient theatre room in Jogimara Cave. The Mural paintings are unique because of their sheer size. They cannot be contained on paper and need to be executed on the walls of large structures, usually caves and temple walls. In ancient period, these were utilised by three major religions: Buddhism, Jainism and Hinduism. Some of the best examples are murals in the Ajanta- Ellora Caves.