Remembering the place i love through.....Mysore Traditional Paintings!

Mysore painting: The Vijayanagar School of Painting (A.D. 1336 to 1665) was very distinct from the earlier styles and has made a great contribution  to the Art of India. The pupils of this school specialized in drawing war scenes, folk dances, animal hunting, commercial transactions and everyday life of the common people. The Mysore and Tanjore Traditional Paintings are the off shoots of the Vijayanagar school.

The Mysore kings were ruling the princely state from Srirangapattana and Raja Wodeyar (1578-1617 A.D.) employed several painters from Vijayanagar and thus laid a sound foundation of Mysore Traditional Painting. These painters were also assigned allied work in decoration, preparing banners, doll making, gold work, painting the temple cars, preparing portraits of rulers, deities and saints. The Mysore kings that followed also encouraged this style of painting.

The stories from the ramayana, the Mahabharatha, the Bhagavata Purana and Jain epics are the primary basis of Mysore traditional paintings. Individual deities, epic heroes, court scenes, battle ground are also depicted. Most popular themes are: Rajarajegvari, Shri Rama Pattabhisheka, Kodanada Rama, Dashavatara, Tandaveshvara, Ambegalu Krishna, Laxmi, Sarasvati, Chamundesvari, Visvarupadarsha, and Samudramanthana. Some of well preserved Jesso paintings could be seen in Mysore, Nanjangoodu and Bangalore. Sringeri, Melukote and other pilgrimage centers also have many gesso paintings.

I have been practicing Mysore art from many years from Jaganmohana palace in Mysore. We were guided by  palace artist called Ramanarasiah .But we were a bunch of people who were fortunate to learn from Ramanarasiah's very talented student called Shatrughna Thimmappa. Here are some of the paintings which i still have (fortunately!) done under his guidance which are close to my heart.

To learn more about the rich heritage of these paintings,write to me on suggicreativestudio@gmail.com.