ABSTRACT
The world of South Indian painting requires considerable further research. Its history, development and thematic repertoire are still but fragmentarily known. On account of the fragile nature of the plaster, cotton and paper on to which the paintings were executed, all of which are adversely affected by light, heat and humidity, only a fraction of the paintings of this region still survives. The few surviving paintings of the Pallava, Pandya and Chola periods display a number of common features: first of all, there is a close similarity between the paintings and the contemporaneous sculptures. Substantial portions of complete or nearly complete painted Ramayana sets, probably dating from the late seventeenth or early eighteenth centuries are visible at various South Indian sites such as the ceiling of the entrance mandapa of the Brhadambal temple, Thirugokarna; in the Vasanta mandapa of the Alakar temple, Alagar Koyil, and in the Antal, Rajamannar and Garudalvar temple complex at Srivilliputtur.
