Inside a ‘mandapam’ of the Sri Parthasarathy Swamy temple at Triplicane, experts are working on removing layers of cement, chicken mesh and asbestos sheets from a mural depicting a scene from the Kurukshetra war. Two murals at the temple were found during its recent Kumbhabhishekam when the centuries-old temple was restored to its former glory.
R. Kannan, Secretary, Tourism, Culture and Hindu Religious Endowments Department, who has been overseeing the restoration and conservation work, visited the temple on Saturday. “They are two murals… one seems to be a battle scene at Kurukshetra and another, Krishna preaching the Gita to Arjuna. They could have been done around the Vijayanagara period,” he said, adding that they were fresco secco paintings.
“These are paintings done using mineral and vegetable colours on line drawings. Semi-dry lime-based mortar formed the base. Such paintings can be found at Sithannavasal and also at the Thirupidaimarudhur temple,” Mr. Kannan said.
The restoration work is being carried out under the watchful eye of the Chemical Conservation Committee of the State government that is also presently restoring murals at the Suseendram temple and Thirupidaimarudhur temple. The murals had been covered with plaster and came to light when the cement fell off.
According to devotees of Triplicane, the Sri Parthasarathy Swamy temple used to have such murals all around. “But during some renovation in 1992, these paintings got covered and destroyed,” said a devotee. The restoration work is likely to get over in a month.
