Tanjore Paintings - South Indian Way To Show Devotion To God

Originated in the Thanjavur during the Maratha period in the 16th century, Tanjore paintings signify a unique and colorful world. This one of the popular forms of South India depicts the scenes from Indian ancient scriptures of Hindu religion. For its use of precious stones, ornaments, exotic media like ivory, mirror, mica and rich colors the Tanjore paintings hold a distinct place in the history of Indian paintings.

The Tanjore paintings typically have one figure, usually a Hindu God, Goddess or saint with beautiful appearance and eyes. You will see the images of Hindu Gods like Vishnu-Lakhmi, Shiva -Parvati, Lord Ganesh, and Krishna in majority of the Tanjore paintings. The artists primarily use the gems of various colors and gold leaves to create a highly durable glow in these paintings.

The paintings are usually made on wood and cloth made canvass. To add a 3D effect on the painting the painters use limestone and any binging medium. In the earlier times the paintings were created by the natural colors, which now have been replaced with the chemical colors. If studied properly, you will understand that the artists use very specific colors to make each and every painting, like green or red for the background and dark brown for outline. They use yellow color to paint the Goddesses, blue color to represent sky and so on.

These paintings are broadly classified into three parts, namely antique, classic, and embossed. In antique paintings the colors and backgrounds are quite moderate. The classic Tanjore paintings have very strong and varied colors, which have enhanced with high glitter gold foil. Lastly, the embossed paintings are quite similar to classic paintings and most of them are super embossed.

The Tanjore paintings are purely the divine forms of expression of beauty, God, and truth. Till date, thousands of Tamil Nadu artists have kept this form of Indian paintings alive. For their elegance, in the current time the Tanjore paintings have become a part of Indian as well as overseas art galleries.