Early Wall Painting of Garhwal

The present Volume is a pionerering effort inbringing to limelight those rare but splendid specimens of the Garhwal wall painting, which have so far remained unknown and obscure to the world of art. These paintings are executed on the walls of the main shrine and other edifices of the Gurudwara of Guru Ram Rai at Dehradun. The author has now endeavoured to explore the historical and socio-cultural contents of these wall paintings. He has very painstakingly studied the aesthetic and technical aspects of these murals to discover the establish an independent school of wall painting in Garhwal. That school flourished for 300 years and produced finest wall paintings in the Gurudwara. Some of these paintings are devoted to the Sikh gurus, which may be the oldest in India. What further adds to the value of this book is the data, which the author have obtained from the relatives and pupils of Tulsi, the master-painter of some of the finestmurals in the Gurudwara. The analysis based on that information makes the present study all the more authentic and credible. The present study reveals another, and perhaps the latest, efflorescence of the mural tradition in the Himalayan region that may unfold new vistas in the study of Garhwal painting beyond the Srinagar-Tehri axis. These wall paintings are presently in different states of precarious condition. The posterity may soon be deprived of these glorious works of art under the prevailing uncongenial conditions. That consideration, more than anything else, underscores the need to record and rediscover them. Hence, this book.