MEENAXI TEMPLE, MADURAI - RESTORATION

Madurai Meenakshi Temple Murals Being Restored to Their Original Splendor

www.hindu.com

MADURAI, INDIA, March 29, 2006: The famous Madurai Meenakshi Temple's 16th and 17th century murals are being restored to their original splendor. A team headed by Vinod T. started the restoration work back in 1996 and after a few setbacks due to lack of funding, the team resumed their post in 2002. The news release says that the murals depicted a collection of 64 stories called the Thiruvilayadal Puranam, composed by Paranjyoti Munivar and that hardly anything of these stories remains on the 2,500 square feet space on the two walls around the Potramaraikkulam tank of the temple. Apparently, a crude attempt was made 27 years ago to restore the works and clean up the murals which almost resulted in a piece of history being wiped out. However someone was forward thinking enough to copy the murals on canvas and this is what Vinod and his team are using as a guideline. Vinod, who received his training from Mammiyoor Krishnan Asan from Guruvayoor and is famous fo r his skill in restoration, elaborates, "These were hardly complete, but the style was clear. So we did research, reading texts such as the Haalasya Maahaattmyam and also Thiruvilayadal to recreate the paintings that belong to the Naicker period. " The news release explains the process, "Vinod draws the outlines and his students, Sreekumar, Joshi and Madhu painstakingly fill the areas with natural colors, collected from different parts of the country. Blue comes from lapis lazuli, and green from malachite, both from Afghanistan, imported through Kashmiri agents. Red and yellow colors come from hard stones and minerals in the forests, which wandering mendicants bring. All these naturally occurring stones have to be crushed, ground and cleaned for the shades required. Black is derived from burning clean white cloth fashioned into a wick, in a lamp fuelled by gingelly oil. A terracotta lid above the lamp collects the soot, which does the job of black in the murals. The natural white colour comes from firing conch shells, not mussels. The binding is neem gum. That explains why pests keep off murals. But humidity is something even natural colors cannot fight." Vinod adds, "The damage to the murals in the Chitra Mandapam has always been caused by the humid climate. May be that is how, over the years, the murals have been damaged. Humidity is already beginning to tell on the murals that have been restored. Experts from Delhi have been called in to deal with this problem." So far the team has completed seven panels and Vinod says the work will take at least another five years to complete.