Tanjore painting speaks to us about love devotion and beauty of godhead. The divine stories of ancient time are foretold by the Folk art. Every regions and hamlets of India have a legend to tell and the paintings of Tanjore also known as Thanjuvar paintings are the greatest narrators of the legends of Gods and heroes. They are the crystal water reflection of our ancient and glorious past and cultural heritage.

The premise of Tanjore painting is essentially religion and spirituality and the art is renowned for its artistic portray of legendary characters and themes.

Tanjore paintings originated in Tanjavur in Chennai during the reign of the powerful Chola empire. From 16 to 18th centuries, Maratha princes, Rajus communities of Tanjore, Nayaks of Vijaynagar empire, and Trichi and Naidus of Madurai supported the art of Tanjore painting. The rulers patronized the Tanjore art and so the latter prospered and developed during these time. The Tanjore painting adorned the interiors of the palaces and soon found their place in every household. The "Saraswathi Mahal Library"in Tanjore built by the king Serfoji II displays the famous Tanjori paintings.

The pastimes and life of Lord Krishna are seen in Tanjore paintings. The uniqueness of the Tanjore paintings is their extraordinary gold leaf work, attractive jewellery with stones, dazzling color design, and eye catching engraved glasses.The laissez-faire application of gold leaf and precious and semi-precious stones like rubies and diamonds speaks the greatness of the adroit artists of those times.

The characteristic of Thanjavur painting is that the figures in the paintings have a round body and egg shaped effulgent eyes and are surrounded by curtains and arch. These paintings will illuminate in the dark room.

From the humble canvas and brush the ultimate form of the beauty, the Tanjore paintings, is made. The Canvas used for this painting previously was wood of the Jackfruit tree but the modern artist uses plywood. A layer of cloth is pasted over this plywood using the Arabic adhesive. A uniform coating of limestone paste and a binding material is applied and the cloth is let to dry. The artist then sketches the meticulous pictures on the canvas while the paste of limestone and fastening substance is used during adorning and engraving ornaments into the paintings. The pillars, dresses, arch and thrones of the Tanjore paintings are gilded with the gold leaves and gems of different colors. After this colors are painted on the sketch. For outlines dark brown is usually used. Red is preferentially used as the background color but some times green is also used. The yellow color is used for the Goddesses while for Gods it varies: blue for Lord Vishnu and while white for Lord Nataraj. Previously artists used the natural colors made from the vegetable dyes. The portfolios of the old Tanjore paintings were restricted to the drawings of the divine figures. But now days the modern artists explore new dimensions. They also started depicting the presiding deities of the famous temples.

The Frames
Tanjore paintings were framed in two types of structures; the wooden type made of plain wood and the Chettinad type, which have an extra ornate design.

The Heritage
Tanjore paintings are the ultimate forms of expression of love of Godhead, truth, beauty and devotion. Hundreds of devoted artists from Tamil Nadu have kept alive this beautiful form of art and have brought about new innovations to it.