“The pictures had to be taken lying on the floor, looking up, and apart from the filth and dust on the floor, I also spotted the remains of a bandicoot and dead cat.” That was the kind of work space that veteran photographer V K Rajamani had while trying to record the around 50 painted panels on the ceiling of the Tyagarajaswami temple in Tiruvarur.
Rajamani stated to the audience who were present at Kalakshetra Foundation in Tiruvanmiyur recently for the release of the book ‘The Mucukunda Murals’, “When I began this work in the 1970s, I had no idea that it would become a book.”
Rajamani’s effort was to store an unfinished set of around 50 painted panels on the ceiling of the Tyagarajaswami temple in Tiruvarur, depicting the story of the monkey-faced Chola king Mucukunda who is said to have brought lord Tyagaraja from heaven down to Tiruvarur.
When he took the photographs, there was no digital photography and as the veteran explained, no means of additional light.
So, it certainly was quite a task to get the pictures taken, but as Israeli Indologist, Dr David Shulman, revealed, "Nearly all of these paintings were lost due to bad conditions and maintenance and, luckily, this story has a happy ending.”
For the last three years, Prakriti Foundation has been undertaking restoration of the panels. The restoration work has now been completed and the book has been put together as a collaborative effort.
The first copy of the book was offered to the deity, lord Tyagaraja at Tiruvarur, at a ceremony earlier this year.
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