Painting mythology on the wall

CALLED the temple town, Jammu has innumerable temples in every locality. Some of these temples have frescoes that are interesting. By far the most fascinating frescoes are in the Purani Mandi temple dedicated to Lord Rama. It was the old seat of the Dogra rulers till about 200 years back. The Dogra ruler Maharaja Ranbir Singh, 1857-1885, whose reign saw Dogra rule at its height, was instrimental in building many temples. He was also an ardent patron of art and learning. He set up hundreds of religious edifices and pilgrimage centres throughout the state. Following him, other royal house members and high courtiers also set up temples here. The imposing famous Purani Mandi temple was constructed by one of his ranis, Rani Bandrali. Interestingly, it has a number of big halls luxuriantly lined with striking wall paintings. The piece de resistance is two series of paintings elaborately displaying episodes from the Ramayana and the Bhagawata Purana.

As one enters the temple gate there are big halls on both sides of the porch. After crossing these halls, one approaches the imposing temple built on a high plinth. The hall on the left on the ground floor and the two halls on both sides on the first floor have been painted exuberantly. Several other rooms in the buildings have also painted walls.

On the first floor on the left of the porch are frescoes from the Ramayana in two rows, the lower one has bigger vertical panels, each 4 by 6 feet, the upper row has horizontal panels each 4 by 2`BD ft. The Ramayana series starts from the panel where various devatas approach Lord Vishnu supplicating that demons torturing the virtuous souls may be got rid of. Rama’s 14-year-long exile is shown. Scenes from his exile are depicted as are his travel in the forest along with Sita and Laxman. Also portrayed is the war scenes with Ravana in which the latter is killed and Rama returns to Ayodhya. The series ends with Rama’s coronation.

Vividly depicted in these frescoes are Rama’s crossing the river into the forests, his visits to the ashrams of various celebrated rishis there, Bharat’s entreaty to Rama to return and rule in Ayodhya and the Sarupnakha incident. Sitaharan, resistance by Jatayu and its death, Bali-Sugreev combat, Sita in captivity in Ashoka Vatika in Lanka and Hanuman’s visit there also feature in the frescoes. The fresco depicting the Sarupnakha incident shows the demoness as a beautiful damsel luring Rama, who is sitting along with Sita outside the hut. The jungle ambience has been superbly highlighted by a few boldly done trees with whiffs of clouds overhead. Rama and Sita seem bewildered, rather than embarrassed, gesturing as if to say, "Look, what’s she doing?" However, Sarupnakha unashamedly continues her insolent behaviour. In the same panel, furious Laxman is shown chopping off Sarupnakha’s nose when she does not abstain from her base behaviour. However, she is still shown as an enchantress. Having received the punishment, Shurpnakha assumes her original shape as a demoness.

Though it involved difficult and painstaking procedure in working out the effective composition, Purani Mandi temple frescoists had done it successfully by clearly managing to highlight each action without any confusion, Moreover, they had eminently artistically maintained the rhythm of the entire narrative in the frescoes as if drama is unfolding live before the spectators. Another highlight of these frescoes is that the master artists were apparently adept in executing miniature as well as bold figures, as the occasion required. Where figures of Rama, Sita, Laxman and Sarupnakha somewhat boldly "have their limbs and attitudes corresponding to the expression of the emotion of the faces." Similarly, the war scenes have also been exquisitely executed even though there are myriads of postures of the combatants. Even minutest details have not been overlooked.

On the right side of the porch as one crosses the temple gate, on the first storey is a hall with frescoes depicting episodes from the Bhagawata Purana. Highlighting the same exquisitely rendered fresco art as in the Ramayana series, Bhagawata Purana frescoes portray the marriage of Devaki with Vasudeva, a divine voice telling Kansa that his sister Devaki’s son would cause his (Kansa’s) death. Also shown are scenes of Kansa trying to behead Devaki, Vasudeva’s pleading with him not to do that with the promise that they would hand over to him each child born to them, Kansa’s killing Devaki’s children, Krishna’s birth in jail, Vasudeva’s carrying away the infant Krishna to Gokul to Yashodha and bringing back Yashodha’s daughter to Devaki. Kansa’s killing the infant and her prediction that Kansa’s killer had been born and was in Gokul, Krishna’s childhood pranks, his killing various demons sent by Kansa’s to eliminate him, his departure to Mathura—have all been etched with clarity. Particularly worth a mention is the scene of Krishna dancing with gopis. The scintillating dancing movements emphasise the rapture of divine dance.