Wall painting was a fascinating art which has become defunct now on account of changing fashions and techniques of decorating and embellishing buildings. Under the impact of modernism, patronage of wall paintings melted away and with it the know-how of the preparation of special plaster for the wall and colour for paintings also sank down to oblivion. Consequently, the muralists disappeared as also this art with them. But during the centuries it was popular all over the country, it created a large bulk of pictures on walls most of which were of high water mark, as well as important as visual representation of the cultural trends in society for which these were painted. But unfortunately the medium, the plaster and colour, was most liable to disfiguration and dispigmentation on account of its constant exposure to atmospheric vagaries and human neglect. The result is that wall paintings have terribly suffered, and the surviving ones are also in danger of total disappearance. The same had been the case in Jammu and Kangra hills. Realising the inevitability of their disappearance Dr. Charak devised a plan for their documented photo-preservation which he worked out with punctilious comprehensibility with the aid of Jammu University as its emeritus fellow for five years. The result is a voluminous work on each mural centre. The present book gives a panoramic view of Pahari murals in the context of technical and readable commentary on the outstanding specimens of the art and its technique which survive to this day.
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