Mandwa Paintings

Shekhawati region in western India, is famous for its mural paintings. It is like a huge open air gallery of painted walls, havelis and palaces in the vast expanse of the desert of Rajasthan in India. Mandwa is one such place, where every nooks and corner of the town, street, home has been painted with frescoes. We had been to one such ancient home where the interiors are beautifully painted. (Click on the images for bigger picture)

Here the theme is based on royal army of Rajasthan Kings. The paintings show royal assembly.

Even the ceiling is painted with floral designs.

Murals of Laxminarayan Temple, Orchha

In Orchha (State: Madhya Pradesh) the Laxminarayan Temple of 1622 is one of the most important tourist attraction of the place. (Click on the images for bigger picture)

The inner portion of the temple in the ceilings are adorned with murals, where the themes are based on Sage Valmiki’s Ramayana, and the poet, Tulsidas’, Ram Charitra Manas. In the painting above among other things one can see Lord Krishna with Radha.

The vivacious colors of the frescoes are still retained. In the painting above there are various animals like men on elephants and horses. There are also peacocks at the corners.

Shekhawati Paintings

Shekhawati region in western India, is famous for its mural paintings. It is like a huge open air gallery of painted walls, havelis and palaces in the vast expanse of the desert of Rajasthan in India. Every nooks and corner of the each town, street, home has been painted with frescoes. The homes built by the people of the region feature exquisite paintings that decorate their walls, doors, and interiors. The themes of these frescoes depict gods, kings, flowers and scenes from daily life. (Click on the images for bigger picture)

The technique of Fresco painting in Shekhawati is very similar to the Italian Fresco technique of the 14th century. Mostly vegetable pigments were used for coloring. Some of the main ingredients are kajal for black, lime for white, neel for blue, geru for red, kesar for orange, yellow clay for yellow.

The above image is interior courtyard of haveli in Mandwa taken in the night. This technique has been used since 1580 in this region. So this paintings in this area are around this period.

Man Mandir Palace, Gwalior

This magnificent palace inside the Gwalior Fort was built by Raja Man Singh of the Tomar dynasty between 1486 and 1516. The palace can be reached by north eastern fort entrance. Because of the richly tiled and painted decorations with elephants and peacocks, and the exceptional fresco with the ducks paddling in turquoise waters, it is also known as Chit Mandir or Painted Palace. (Click on all the images for bigger picture)

This palace has four levels, two of them are underground. Six rounded towers crowned with cupolas relieve this 80 feet high structure. The beauty is further enhanced by blue ceramic mosaic and petite trellis work.

It consists of two open courts surrounded by apartments with carved stones, pillars. There are various rooms serving different purpose such as affairs of state, relaxation, decorated ornately with beautiful paintings, different figures of human beings, carved animals and flowers. The walls of these halls were decorated with triangular friezes.

Even the ceilings in each room had different designs carved out as below:

This is one of the few architecture marvel in the fort that has withstood the test of time.

The Shekhawati Region

After a good night sleep we were up early morning on the 2nd day of our trip for the visual splendor. We were ready by 8:00 a.m after the good continental breakfast. (Click on all the images for bigger & clear picture)

We visited various Havelis constructed by wealthy business men in the nineteenth century in the Shekhawati region. These Havelies are decorated with colored painting adorning their walls. But as the merchant families migrated, these visual attractions did not fade away and today they are some of the major attractions for the tourists visiting Rajasthan.

Next we visited Mandwa's imposing fort, right in the center. Castle Mandawa was build in 1755 by Thakur Nawal singh, a descendant of Rao Shekha, the founder of Shekhawati. Two imposing gateways lead to the central courtyard where cannons stand as a reminder of the past when they were used to repel the enemy. The palace in the fort hosts beautiful paintings. At present it is converted into the most famous hotel in the region.

From Mandwa we moved to Fathepur. The town is packed with elaborately painted mansions, temples, wells and chhatris. The Hawelis in this region depict the scenes from Mahabarath and Ramayana.

With this due to shortage of time we decided to travel to Bikaner, the camel country.

Distance: Mandwa ---> Bikaner is 164 kms

P.S: Shekhavti comprises of important towns like Mandwa, Fathepur, Jhunjhunu, Nawalgarh.