Thursday, March 1, 2012

Tanjore Art : A blissful experience !!

Pin It I wanted to do a post on Tanjore Paintings. The post however dint happen partly because I got lazy and partly because I forgot :-( .

A recent visit to the Lacquer Art Museum in Münster made me really want to do this post. The classy and gorgeous relief work in some of the collections there made me recollect the exquisite relief work that goes in to the making of Tanjore Art. Unfortunately I have no pictures of the collections in Lacquer Art Museum to make a post on it :-( .

So moving on to Tanjore Painting, anyone from South India is sure to know tons about Tanjore (Tanjavur) Paintings. And a simple googling too will give tons and tons of information about this art work. I will however brief it here in my post for the convenience of my audience :-).

Tanjore Painting is a form of classical South Indian painting native to the town of Tanjavur (anglicized as Tanjore) in the state of Tamil Nadu. This art form dates back to about 1600 AD and most part of the process of making a Tanjore Painting is still preserved as heritage. The striking importance of these paintings is due to the use of high quality gold foils and semi-precious stones. The paintings mostly depict episodes from Hindu mythology and feature Hindu Gods and Goddesses extensively.

And for an Iyer artist Maatuponnu (thats the Tam word for Daughter in Law :-)), there can ofcourse be no excuse for not trying her hands in Tanjore Paintings. So in 2010, I set off to experience the making Tanjavur Paintings. And it was an absolute treat to my soul !!

Dhanya Laxmi


Hindu goddess MahaLaxmi is the giver of Wealth, Prosperity (both material and spiritual), light, wisdom, fortune, fertility, generosity and courage.

Hindu mythology believes in eight secondary manifestations of goddess MahaLaxmi, called AshtaLaxmi. DhanyaLaxmi is one of the eight manifestations. She bestows Agricultural prosperity. The picture shows a Sugarcane in her hand which symbolises Agricultural wealth.

Ganesha



He is a very popular God, known for being a food lover. His vahanam (vehicle he uses to travel) is a rat :-). He is also believed to destroy all troubles and hence called Vighnahari(vighna = trouble , hari = destroyer).

There is an interesting story of Ganesha and Kubera. Kubera is the God of Wealth. Intending to boast his riches, he once decided to host a grand fest for all gods and goddesses. Lord Shiva (father of Ganesha) unable to attend, politely declined the invitation and suggested that Ganesha cud attend instead of him. Load Shiva however cautioned Kubera about Ganesha's appetite. Since Kubera already wanted to boast his riches, he was very glad to get an appropriate opportunity. Ganesha, wishing to destroy Kubera's pride, ate so much that Kubera finally gave up and asked for forgiveness. He understood that Ganesha was teaching him a lesson for being proud. :-)

Indian children grow up listning to such stories from grandparents :-) .

Pic of the above painting while it was in progress
Balkrishna


Child krishna with Yashoda and Nand. Krishna grew up in Vrindavan where his foster parents lived. There are many stories of Krisna's past times in Vrindavan. The butter pot clutched so tight in his arms cannot be missed !!



Pic of the above tanjore work while in progress.



The below pic is already posted earlier. The picture however was not very clear. I am reposting a better one :). Its a 3d work.



I am very glad you stopped by and hope you enjoyed the art works. I will be back soon with new posts and ofcourse new art works :-) .

4 comments:

  1. Too good. finally you made it. keep going.
    wishing you all the best for your future paintings.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thankyou so much aunty. I am so glad to see your comment

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh wonderful.. Tanjore is another form that I completely admire.. wow!!

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  4. Sunayana madam

    Amazing art work of Tanjore paintings created by you. They are really beautiful. Sunayana madam please keep up your paintings passion and it is a God's gift to you.

    Sunayana madam these are some of Tanjore paintings greetings cards in my collection.

    http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/10/tanjore-style-paintings-greetings-cards.html

    Sunayana madam these are some other paintings related messages which i am sharing in my Heritage of India blog.

    http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/02/warli-paintings-greetings-cards.html

    http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/03/kerala-mural-paintings.html

    http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/07/beautiful-kalamkari-painting-images.html

    Sunayana madam apart from sharing my collections in my blog i am also sharing my knowledge on Indian Heritage and Culture with school and college students by giving seminars to them. Sunayana madam so far i gave 2 seminars to students.

    Sunayana madam these are my 2 seminars links.

    http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/02/my-first-seminar-on-indian-heritage-and.html

    http://indian-heritage-and-culture.blogspot.in/2013/07/my-second-seminar-on-indian-heritage.html

    Sunayana madam please explore my Heritage of India blog and share your valuable comments.

    ReplyDelete

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