A History of Fine Art in India and Ceylon, from the Earliest Times to the Present Day c15.s6.1

c15.s6.1

The Jain holy place at Tirumalai, to the south of Vellore, in the North Arcot District, Madras, is remarkable as possessing the remains of a set of wall and ceiling paintings ascribed, on the evidence of inscriptions, to the eleventh century (*Ep. Ind.* ix. 229). Traces exist of still older paintings covered up by the existing works. The principal design now visible is a circular wheel, three feet in diameter, painted on plaster applied to the brick wall of a chamber at the foot of the rock overhanging the temple. The nave of the wheel is occupied by a Jain saint (*Tīrthankara*) seated cross-legged in the usual manner, and flanked by two attendants with fly-whisks. The rest of the surface of the wheel is divided into twelve compartments, separated by as many spokes, and each filled by a crowd of worshippers, mostly men. But one compartment contains twelve white-robed nuns, nine of whom have brown faces, the remaining three being tinted greenish-blue; and another compartment is occupied by oxen, elephants, and leopards as representatives of the animal creation adoring its Lord. Traces of flying figures are visible in the spandrils between the circumference of the wheel and the edges of the square black panel on which it is painted. The whole surface appears to have been covered with a black wash on which the design was superimposed. The colours, white, shades of brown, and a little greenish-blue, are not brilliant.