Anna Seastrand : Styles, Stories, Scripts: Telugu and Tamil in Nayaka-Period Mural Painting in Tamil Nadu
This paper addresses the theme of circulation through the close study of inscriptions and paintings of the 17th century murals at the Chennaraya Perumal temple at Adiyamankottai. The temple is situated in the northwestern area of the Tamil region, a linguistic and political border zone subject to much contestation. The architectural style and style of the mural paintings within its mahamandapa are distinctive because they are more closely related to examples found in southern Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh than they are to those of Tamil Nadu. Of particular interest is the fact that the mural paintings contain extensive Telugu-language inscriptions, and that the paintings were executed in a style without precedent in the mural tradition that comes down to us today. By focusing on a period, material, and area that are little studied and poorly understood, I will highlight how the history of painting and the history of the region—the study of the dynamic political and social lives of the sites’ patrons, artisans and audiences—equally illumine one another. Appreciation of the high degree of movement among people, styles, languages, and stories—of circulation—is crucial to understanding both the paintings and the contexts of their creation and reception.
Biographical Statement:
Anna Seastrand is a doctoral candidate at Columbia University in New York. Her dissertation examines paintings of the Tamil region 1500-1800 and is advised by Vidya Dehejia. She has studied Tamil language since 2001, and is fortunate to have studied the language at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, American College-Madurai, AIIS-Madurai,and at Columbia University. Her undergraduate honors thesis concerned Mughal painting and costume during the reign of Jahangir, and was advised by Philip Wagoner at Wesleyan University in Connecticut.
