Later Mural Traditions Class 11 Notes: Badami to Kerala Murals

These Later Mural Traditions Class 11 notes revise the chapter for Fine Art in one sitting: the key sites, dynasties, dates and style markers you need before a test. The chapter traces the mural tradition after Ajanta — from the early Chalukyan cave at Badami, through the Pallava, Pandya and Chola kingdoms, to the Vijayanagara, Nayaka and Kerala schools.

Everything here follows the 2026-27 rationalised NCERT session and is built for quick revision. For the full set, browse our Class 11 Fine Art revision notes.

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The Big Picture: Mural Traditions After Ajanta

The chapter opens with a warning and a clue. The warning: very few painted sites survive after Ajanta, so each surviving fragment carries extra weight (NCERT, p. 61). The clue: sculptures too were plastered and painted, and cave excavation continued with sculpting and painting done simultaneously — painting never stopped, it just survives in fewer places.

History is reconstructed here from fragments, inscriptions and stylistic links, not from complete programmes.

The chapter follows one continuous line south (NCERT, p. 61–67):

• Badami (early Chalukyas) — Ajanta’s style moves to Karnataka
• Pallava, Pandya, Chola — the tradition extends into Tamil Nadu
• Vijayanagara and Nayaka — a new pictorial language
• Kerala — a distinct technique with luminous colour

Ask the same three questions at every site: who patronised it, what survives, and what style markers it adds. You can verify the full chapter text on the official NCERT textbook portal, and compare notes across subjects in our CBSE notes library or the Class 11 notes hub.

Badami Cave Paintings: The Chalukyan Link

Badami, in Karnataka, was the capital of the early Chalukyan dynasty, which ruled the region from 543 to 598 CE (NCERT, p. 61). After the Vakataka rule declined, the Chalukyas established their power in the Deccan and carried the mural tradition south from Ajanta.

The cave excavation was patronised by King Mangalesha — the younger son of Pulakesi I and brother of Kirtivarman I. The inscription in Cave No. 4 is dated 578–579 CE, describes the cave’s beauty, and records the dedication of a Vishnu image, showing the patron’s Vaishnava affiliation. That is why the cave is popularly called the Vishnu Cave (NCERT, p. 61).

Only a fragment survives, on the vaulted roof of the front mandapa.

What the fragment shows — the palace scene:

• Kirtivarman, elder brother of Mangalesha, seated with his wife and feudatories watching a dance
• In the corner, figures of Indra and his retinue

Style markers (NCERT, p. 62):

• Sinuous lines, fluid forms, compact composition
• Graceful faces recalling Ajanta’s style of modelling
• Large eye-sockets, half-closed eyes, protruding lips
• Contours of the face’s parts create volume through line alone — the precise link between Badami and Ajanta

Pallava, Pandya and Chola Murals: The Southern Extension

The tradition moved further south into Tamil Nadu, gaining a regional variation under each dynasty — the Pallavas, the Pandyas and the Cholas (NCERT, p. 62).

Pallava Patronage: Mahendravarman I and His Temples

King Mahendravarman I (seventh century) built temples at Panamalai, Mandagapattu and Kanchipuram (NCERT, p. 62). The Mandagapattu inscription lists his art-loving titles (NCERT, p. 63):

• Vichitrachitta — curious-minded
• Chitrakarapuli — tiger among artists
• Chaityakari — temple builder

Surviving work: the graceful Panamalai female divinity, and at the Kanchipuram temple (patronised by Pallava king Rajsimha) only traces of Somaskanda. Style markers: round, large faces; rhythmic lines; increased ornamentation; elongated torso (NCERT, p. 63).

Pandya Painting: Tirumalaipuram and Sittanvasal

The Pandyas patronised art too. Their surviving examples are the Tirumalaipuram caves (a few fragmented paint layers) and the Jaina caves at Sittanvasal, of the ninth century (NCERT, p. 63). At Sittanvasal the paintings appear on the ceilings of shrines, in verandas, and on brackets. The finest images are the dancing celestial nymphs on the veranda pillars:

• Firm vermilion contours on a lighter background
• Yellow body with subtle modelling; supple limbs and rhythmic swaying
• Slightly elongated eyes that sometimes protrude off the face — a feature that recurs in later Deccan and South Indian painting (NCERT, p. 64)

Chola Murals: The Brihadeswara Discovery

The Cholas ruled from the ninth to the thirteenth century, reaching their zenith in the eleventh century (NCERT, p. 64). The chapter names three temples with their builders:

The most important Chola paintings are at Brihadeswara, on the walls of the narrow passage surrounding the shrine. Two layers were found: the upper layer from the Nayak period (sixteenth century); cleaning it away revealed the Chola layer beneath (NCERT, p. 64).

Subjects include Shiva in Kailash, Shiva as Tripurantaka, Shiva as Nataraja, and a portrait of Rajaraja with his mentor Kuruvar. The Chola style is marked by sinuous pre-determined flow of lines, supple modelling, and elongation of physiognomic features (NCERT, p. 65).

Vijayanagara and Nayaka Murals: A Pictorial Language

After the Cholas declined in the thirteenth century, the Vijayanagara dynasty (fourteenth–sixteenth centuries) controlled the region from Hampi to Trichy, with Hampi as its capital (NCERT, p. 65). The surviving sites form a clear sequence:

• Tiruparakunram near Trichy — fourteenth century, the early phase of the style
• Hampi, Virupaksha temple — ceiling of the mandapa narrates dynastic history, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata; notable panels show Vidyaranya (spiritual teacher of Bukkaraya Harsha) carried in a palanquin procession, and the incarnations of Vishnu
• Lepakshi near Hindupur, present Andhra Pradesh — the Shiva temple walls carry glorious examples

The pictorial language the Vijayanagara painters evolved is the chapter’s central concept (NCERT, p. 65):

• Faces in profile with large frontal eyes
• Figures and objects drawn two-dimensionally; narrow waists
• Lines still but fluid; compositions in rectilinear compartments

The Nayaka extension. The Nayaka dynasty’s paintings (seventeenth–eighteenth centuries) at Thiruparakunram, Sreerangam and Tiruvarur were an extension of the Vijayanagara style with minor regional modifications (NCERT, p. 66). At Thiruparakunram, paintings of two periods survive — the fourteenth and the seventeenth century — with early scenes from the life of Vardhaman Mahavira.

• Themes: episodes from the Mahabharata, Ramayana and Krishna-leela; the Muchukunda panel at Tiruvarur; Shiva as Bhikshatana Murti and Vishnu as Mohini at Chidambaram
• The 60 Ramayana panels at the Sri Krishna temple in Chengam (Arcot District) represent the late phase
• How the style changed: figures mostly in profile against a flat background; male figures slim-waisted but with a less heavy abdomen than in Vijayanagara; the artist still made the space dynamic — the Nataraja at Tiruvalanjuli is the named example (NCERT, p. 66)

Kerala Murals: A Distinct Pictorial Language

Kerala’s painters (sixteenth–eighteenth centuries) evolved their own technique while selectively adopting elements from the Nayaka and Vijayanagara schools — and taking cues from contemporary local traditions such as Kathakali and kalam ezhuthu, the ritual floor painting of Kerala (NCERT, p. 66–67). The result: vibrant, luminous colours and three-dimensional human figures.

Location and sites (NCERT, p. 67):

• Most paintings are on the walls of shrines and cloister walls of temples; some are inside palaces
• More than sixty sites have murals, including three palaces — the Dutch palace in Kochi, Krishnapuram palace in Kayamkulam and Padmanabhapuram palace
• Mature phase: Pundareekapuram Krishna temple, Panayanarkavu, Thirukodithanam, Triprayar Sri Rama temple and the Trissur Vadakkunathan temple

Themes: episodes from Hindu mythology popular in Kerala, drawn from oral traditions and local versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata — not the pan-Indian retellings.

Living Wall-Painting Traditions

The chapter closes with continuity. Wall painting is still alive in villages and havelis, usually made by women at ceremonies or festivals, or as routine cleaning and decoration (NCERT, p. 67). Today’s surviving forms:

• pithoro — parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat
• Mithila painting — northern Bihar’s Mithila region
• warli — Maharashtra
• Village wall paintings in Odisha, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh

Key Terms and Definitions: A Glossary for the Chapter

Key Dates and Numbers: What to Recall Precisely

This chapter has no mathematical formulas; the precise recall anchors are dates and numbers. Memorise these exactly (NCERT, p. 61–67):

Worked Example: Turning Two Schools into One Comparison

Art-history questions often ask you to compare schools. The method below turns any pair into a structured answer. Sample question: “Compare the treatment of the human figure in Badami and Vijayanagara murals.”

Step 1 — Fix period and region for each school. Badami: sixth-century Karnataka, early Chalukyan patronage, an extension of the Ajanta tradition. Vijayanagara: fourteenth–sixteenth centuries, capital at Hampi, region from Hampi to Trichy.

Step 2 — Choose criteria. Use four that the chapter itself uses: face treatment, line quality, body proportion, and use of space.

Step 3 — Pull evidence for each criterion.

Step 4 — Close with a stylistic verdict. Badami kept Ajanta’s volume-based modelling, while Vijayanagara flattened the figure into a two-dimensional pictorial language — but both belong to one continuing mural tradition. Practise the same evidence-first structure in our Indian Bronze Sculpture notes.

Common Mistakes and Confusions to Avoid

Writing Answers to the Chapter’s Three Exercises

These are answer planners, not model answers — use them to structure what you know from your own reading.

Exercise 1: Main features of Badami cave paintings. Build the answer in five points (NCERT, p. 61–62):

1. Patronage and date: Mangalesha patronised the caves; the Cave No. 4 inscription is dated 578–579 CE
2. The Vishnu Cave identity: the inscription dedicates a Vishnu image, recording Vaishnava affiliation
3. The subject: the palace scene of Kirtivarman with his wife and feudatories watching a dance, with Indra in the corner
4. Style: sinuous lines, fluid forms, compact composition, large eye-sockets, half-closed eyes, protruding lips
5. The Ajanta link: contours create volume through line alone, recalling Ajanta’s modelling

Exercise 2: Essay on Vijayanagara paintings.

Use an essay structure: (1) introduction with period and capital (fourteenth–sixteenth centuries, Hampi); (2) the early phase at Tiruparakunram; (3) Hampi’s Virupaksha temple ceiling — dynastic history, Ramayana, Mahabharata, the Vidyaranya palanquin panel; (4) Lepakshi’s Shiva temple; (5) the pictorial language — profile faces, large frontal eyes, narrow waists, two-dimensional treatment, rectilinear compartments; (6) a conclusion linking the style to Nayaka painting as its extension (NCERT, p. 64–66).

Exercise 3: Mural traditions of Kerala and Tamil Nadu.

Write a comparison, not two separate essays (NCERT, p. 62–67): compare periods (Tamil Nadu from the seventh-century Pallavas to the Nayakas; Kerala in the sixteenth–eighteenth centuries), patronage, sites (Panamalai, Kanchipuram, Sittanvasal, Brihadeswara on one side; Triprayar, Pundareekapuram and the three palaces on the other), themes (Shaiva/Vaishnava narrations vs Kerala’s local Hindu mythology), and style (rhythmic lines and elongated torsos vs luminous colour with three-dimensional figures).

Always name specific temples, dynasties and stylistic terms as evidence.

Rapid Revision Summary and Memory Hook

One timeline table holds the whole chapter. Revise it last, then close the book.

Memory hook: hold the sentence “Big Painters Paint Colourful Village Nights in Kerala”. The first letters give the dynasty sequence — Badami, Pallava, Pandya, Chola, Vijayanagara, Nayaka, Kerala.

Closing idea to remember: the mural tradition is not dead. pithoro, Mithila and warli paintings, and the village wall paintings of Odisha, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, show the tradition still alive today (NCERT, p. 67).

FAQs on Later Mural Traditions for Quick Revision

Why is Badami Cave 4 known as the Vishnu Cave?

The inscription in Cave No. 4, dated 578–579 CE, includes the dedication of an image of Vishnu and records the patron Mangalesha’s Vaishnava affiliation. Because of that dedication the cave is popularly called the Vishnu Cave (NCERT, p. 61).

What is the difference between Vijayanagara and Nayaka murals?

Nayaka painting is essentially an extension of the Vijayanagara style with minor regional modifications (NCERT, p. 66). Nayaka figures are mostly in profile against a flat background, and males are slim-waisted but with a less heavy abdomen than Vijayanagara figures; the artist still aimed to make the space dynamic.

Which three Chola temples does the chapter mention and who built them?

Brihadeswara at Thanjavur, built by Rajaraja Chola; Gangaikonda Cholapuram, built by his son Rajendra Chola; and Darasuram, built by Rajaraja Chola II (NCERT, p. 64).

Where do living mural traditions survive in India today?

The chapter names pithoro in parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat, Mithila painting in northern Bihar, warli in Maharashtra, and village wall paintings in Odisha, Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh (NCERT, p. 67). They are often made by women at ceremonies or as routine wall decoration.

How did Kathakali and kalam ezhuthu influence Kerala murals?

Kerala painters selectively adopted elements from the Nayaka and Vijayanagara schools but also took cues from contemporary local traditions, including Kathakali and kalam ezhuthu, the ritual floor painting of Kerala (NCERT, p. 66–67). These local cues helped them develop a distinct technique using vibrant, luminous colours and three-dimensional human figures.

Reference: NCERT Class 11 An Introduction to Indian Art Part I textbook, chapter Later Mural Traditions.