Choultry at Ramesvaram

Description Trichinopoly (Southern India) Pigments on mica The scene shows a modest seaside temple with a columned portico, set against the backdrop of Rameshwaram, a revered pilgrimage town on the southeastern tip of India. Connected to the mainland by the 2 km long Indira Gandhi Bridge, Rameshwaram holds immense significance in Hindu tradition as the site where Rama is said to have worshipped Shiva after his victory over Ravana and the rescue of Sita. The town’s famed Ramanathaswamy Temple, originally established during the Chola period (12th century) and expanded by later dynasties, is renowned for its towering 54-metre gopuram. Painting on mica (talc) was a novelty that greatly attracted the British in India and was produced specifically for European patrons. While mica painting was practised at Murshidabad, Patna, and Benares in eastern India, it also flourished at Trichinopoly in the south, where mica was mined at Cuddapah. By the second half of the nineteenth century, Trichinopoly artists were producing hundreds of mica paintings depicting gods, rulers, festivals, castes, occupations, birds, flowers, and butterflies for sale to the British. A notable example, Trichinopoly Exports (c. 1850), comprising four volumes of finely painted scenes, was exhibited at the Great Exhibition of 1851. South Indian mica paintings are distinguished by their use of arsenic green, lemon yellow, and orange-brown, in contrast to the blue-dominated palette of eastern Indian works. E. B. Havell, writing in the late nineteenth century, specifically noted the flourishing mica painting tradition in Madras. Painting Size (cms): 10(H) x 14.5(W) Painting Size (inches): 4(H) x 5.5(W)