Fading Pictures and Enduring Memories

There is a saying in Malayalam: ‘Some books are so sacred that you should wash your hand before you touch them.’ When senior painter A.Ramachandran handed over this book authored by him, signed with a self-portrait sketch and a few endearing words, the Malayalam maxim came to my mind. I muttered to myself, “I should be washing my hand before I open this book.’ Back home I did exactly the same. How can I pollute the outcome of a half a century long daring research?

You feel humbled before such patient works. A book that deals with the mural traditions of Kerala perhaps does not generate interest in those people who are involved in the ‘give and take’ of the contemporary Indian art scene. But those who are a bit inclined to art history, definitely would deem this book as one of the best books done on the mural traditions of Kerala, that otherwise seen mostly as bad reproductions in tourism promotional brochures and calendars.

One may ask why an artist like A.Ramachandran, scholarly and stately in person, took half a century to finish this book. When one reads through the well written chapters of this book, the reasons will unfold themselves one by one. Ramachandran’s interest for the mural traditions in India in general was ignited by Acharya Nandalal Bose’s pictorial documentation of Ajanta Murals. Ramachandran as a student in Santiniketan during the fifties of the last century came across this ambitious work of documentation and recognized the pain and sincerity behind such an undertaking. He remembered his boyhood days that he spent in Attingal, a town near Trivandrum. As a boy he had seen the beautiful murals on the outer walls of the Srikrishna Swami temple in the locality.

Inspired by the works of Nandalal Bose, Ramachandran embarked on the study of Kerala murals. In several phases Ramachandran visited and documented 31 different sites spread along the length of Kerala and patiently documented them in photographs and in sketches. These sites include temples, palaces and churches; all rich with mural paintings. Through this undertaking Ramachandran is able to shed light on the history of these paintings as well as their historical lineage to other mural traditions elsewhere.

Ramachandran remembers that his passion and the enthusiasm of some close friends were the only resources he had as his purse was always thin and the hostility of the people who occupied the sites were too sharp. Walking through a razor’s edge he finished the documentation. And to his amazement, Ramachandran found many of the sites he had documented in the sixties and seventies perished in due course of time. Now they exist only in these documentations. The callousness and ignorance of the people were the things that bogged him down many a time. Sometimes they vandalized the paintings or other times, in the name of conservation, they over painted them atrociously.

It is to be mentioned that this well designed and produced book is not released yet. Though it has gone into the hands of many scholars and enthusiasts, it has not given a due release for various reasons. “I have done my part. Now whether it is released or not released is immaterial for me,” says Ramachandran with a sense of detachment. True, what is to be must be. So let us hope that this book would get a proper release in the nearest future.