JOIN USTraditional Tanjore paintings, as old as 60 years, have been put up for display and sale at the Poompuhar Tamil Nadu Handicrafts Development Corporation on Brigade Road.
Some of these paintings were made in the traditional Thanjavur style, with temple jewellery stones and gold leaves. The exhibition will be on till May 31, on all days except Sunday.
The old ones were four feet long and five feet wide and had been made entirely with gold zari work. “Most of them are more than 60 years old and have been made with stones like white American diamonds and red kundan,” said Raj Mohan, the manager of the store.
Meenakshi Kalyanam, one such piece, was a beautiful depiction from one of the shastras.
It was entirely made of gold zari as well as precious stones. While most of these big paintings are bought by the corporate houses, the smaller ones are purchased by customers who are followers of vastu shastra. “We have many such paintings which are based on relics as well as gods and goddesses. Like the one based on Krishna Raasleela is a typical piece and made out of gold leaf as well as temple jewellery stones. These paintings are pretty popular and we get many such orders from art-lovers. Another one Ram Pattabhishekam is also equally popular,” said Raj Mohan.
The store has more than 300 such paintings of various sizes and with different kinds of work. Along with the Tanjore paintings, they also have panjloha statues which are made of five different metals like gold, copper, zinc, lead and silver. “Most of the statue is made with copper and we include other metals as well. That’s why it’s called a panjloha. These are replicas of the original ones which can be found only in museums in Chennai and Bangalore,” informed Raj Mohan.
These statues weigh around 200 kgs and the artisans adhere strictly to the rules prescribed in the ‘shastras’ while making them. Other than these statues, the place also has small statues of gods and goddesses like Shiva, Ganesha, Natraja etc. “We have various mudras of Shiva and Ganesha like Ardhnarishwar, as well as the 32 stages of Ganesha. Thanjavur dolls are very popular. We have the authentic ones and they are very much in demand,” he said.