Tamil Nadu, one of the southern states of India, has hundreds of temples, which are treasure houses of arts and crafts. Many of them have mural paintings depicting scenes from epics and Puranas. These date as far back as 7th century A.D. to 18th century A.D. The remnants of one of the best examples can be seen at Chittannavasal near Puthukkottai (7th C, A.D.). The most admirable and well known murals at the Brahadeeshwarar temple at Tanjavur belonging to the Chola period, that is, 10th century .A.D, where discovered in the first half of the 20th century bychance, when cleaning the murals from the 18th century belonging to the Maratha rulers. The Chola paintings have eventually been restored. These paintings depict a few important scenes from the legend of Lord Siva and the court of the Chola Emperor Raja Raja I. This book contains reproductions of the Chola Murals in details photographed by C.T. Nachiappan in the 1950s and give us an idea of the creative skill of the artists of the ancient Tamil nadu. One also gets to see reproductions of Chittannavasal and Panamalai Murals. The Tanjavur temple also houses 81 of the 108 Karanas of Bharatha Natyam portrayed insculpture; these also have been captured in photographs by Nachiappan and included in this book.
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