Kerala Mural Wall Art Wall Art

Kerala Mural Wall Art — 50 museum-grade prints on the theme. Ardhanareeswara — the half-Shiva, half-Parvati form — embodies the inseparability of the masculine and feminine principles, and it is a natural subject for bhitti chitra, Kerala's temple-mural tradition that flourished roughly from the 16th to 19th century and is still painted today. These murals use the panchavarna five-colour system — red, yellow, green, black and white over an ochre ground — in flat opaque fields bounded by a bold lamp-black outline, with the school's elongated lotus-shaped eyes. Kerala's Malabar coast was the hinge of the global spice trade for two millennia — black pepper, cardamom and cinnamon drew Roman, Arab, Chinese and later European ships to Kochi, Kozhikode and Kollam. This print sets that everyday merchant inside bhitti chitra, Kerala's temple-mural tradition that flourished roughly from the 16th to 19th century and is still painted today: flat panchavarna pigments (red, yellow, green, black, white over an ochre ground), a bold lamp-black outline, and the school's elongated lotus-shaped eyes. Ayyappa, also called Sastha or Dharmasastha, is the deity of Sabarimala, one of the most visited pilgrimage shrines in India, reached after a strict forty-one-day vratham. He is classically shown in the seated yogic posture with the yoga-pattam band around the knees, and his vahana is the tiger.

Updated 22 Jun 2026