A house with a colourful history in Adilabad district

In one of the paintings, Lord Krishna rides a Nava nari Kunjari (elephant made of nine females interlocking themselves).

Adilabad: Exquisite mural paintings in the bedroom of an old house belonging to a trader in Thamsi mandal centre are now drawing visitors, with a postgraduate arts student even researching on the paintings.

In one of the paintings, Lord Krishna rides a Nava nari Kunjari (elephant made of nine females interlocking themselves). He plays ‘dandiya’ with ‘gopikas’. In another work of art, Krishna is seen playing a flute, with ‘gopikas’ and cows. Attractive floral patterns with borders and a painting of a king holding a thread and the clock can be noticed in the bedroom. The works apparently depict certain important events of Mahabharata.

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“These types of mural paintings can be found only in private buildings. The shades in figures are influenced by the Khalighat painting style. The composition in the form of animals is similar to the style of Rajput and Mughal compositions. Using bold lines and rendering styles, blending of traditional and folk styles are identical to Naqash paintings of Cherial in Telangana,” Durgam Akshay, an MFA (Painting) student at Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University (JNAFAU)-Hyderabad said.

Akshay, from Utnoor mandal centre, studied the paintings as part of his dissertation recently. Pointing out that floral designs and borders were influenced from the famous Ajanta paintings, he said the murals and life of artists of the region could be researched further.

The two-storied house was built on a sprawling piece of over an acre of land in the 1900s. The building, constructed using dung sunnam, stands tall and continues to withstand tests of time. It contains 12 rooms for storing various grains and an auditorium in the cellar for the purpose of entertainment of visitors. It has an inner and outer courtyard. The architecture is a replica of the Mandawa Havelis found in Rajasthan.

The house is owned by Padigela Jagadishwar Rao, who died in 2021. His son Rajesh is currently managing the house. “Considering significance of antique murals and architecture, the house has become a destination to artists and historians belonging to different parts of the country. Special measures are being taken to preserve the art work and age old home,” Rajesh said.

Rajesh believes the murals might have been done by local Naqash artists who would display their works of art in weekly bazaars over a century ago. He observed that the natural colours, extracted from various plant species such as Moduga or Butea monosperma and certain flowers, were used to paint the murals. He reasoned that the secret behind durability of the murals was the natural colors.

Rajesh recalled that it was his great grandmother Kasamma, who built the house under the guidance of her father Raja Patel of Kinwat of Maharashtra. In those days, traders from Mumbai and other parts of the country would make a beeline to Thamsi and sell their products at a weekly bazaar, after which they would stay in this house and be entertained by local artistes in the cellar auditorium.