CHENNAI: Seated under the umbrella branches of an elderly Banyan tree amid the light of a line of diyas in a distance, a group of art lovers came together for the book launch of The Mucukunda Murals. The event took place on Sunday evening at the Kalakshetra Foundation, Thiruvanmiyur and offered much insight into the photographs documented by VK Rajamani, in an effort to archive an unfinished set of around fifty painted panels on the ceiling of the Tyagarajasvami Temple in Tiruvarur, depicting the story of the monkey-faced Chola king Mucukunda, who is said to have brought the god Tyagaraja from heaven, down to Tiruvarur. Rajamani stated to the audience, "When I began this work in the 1970s, I had no idea that it would become a book." Of course, at that time, there was no digital photography and as the veteran photographer explained, no means of additional light, either. He recalls, "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." 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, the Prakriti Foundation has been undertaking the restoration of these panels. The restoration work has now been completed and on this note, this book has been put together as a collaborative effort. The first copy of the book was offered to the deity of Lord Tyagaraja at Tiruvarur at a ceremony earlier this year, and the evening was followed by a vocal music concert by Vijayalaksmi Subramaniam.
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