A Guide to Ancient Painting of India: Tanjore Painting
In the ancient time of India there are lot of magnificent and passionate paintings available but with the flow of time their existence became extinct. But one of those magnificent painting still manages to catch up to the modern time and that is Tanjore painting. In the history the first known Tanjore panting is said to be almost 40,000 years old. After that Tanjore paintings goes through various stage of evolution. For the first time in India Tanjore painting made in Thanjavur, a city in Tamil Nadu and for the design various precious original stones and pure gold foils were used. To bring out its bright colour oil paints were used which also help it to stay the same for a long period of time.
Design used in Tanjore paintings: Chettinad design and Mysore design are the most popular design found in Tanjore paintings. 1.   Chettinad Tanjore paintings: Tanjore paintings that used this Chettinad design was originated in the same place as the first Tanjore painting in Tamil Nadu a city named Thanjavur. Thick lines, bold colours, appropriate shapes designed that balance the every line of the painting is the specialty of this type of Tanjore painting.
With the use of appropriate colours the artisans make sure that there are not any kind of out of shape things available in the paintings. It is found that this type of design was alive around 1600 A.D.
2.   Mysore Tanjore paintings: This type of design in Tanjore painting was found around 2nd century B.C. to 7th century A.D. Mysore Tanjore paintings originated in Karnataka in a city named Mysore. Delicate lines, intricate brush strokes, graceful delineation of figures are the specialty of this kind of Tanjore paintings.
The graceful figures are mostly gods and goddesses as these paintings were designed to inspire the feeling of devotion. Other specialty of this Mysore design that it used various bright vegetable colours and lustrous gold leaf as designs.
Tanjore paintings are very unique and authentic and said to bring positive energy to home. To design these paintings lots of precious and semiprecious stones and pure gold foils were used by the artisans, which fill in as ornaments and clothing for various graceful figures that are mainly Hindu mythological gods such as Shiva, Vishnu, Lakshmi Tanjore painting, Sarastwati, Parvathi, Krishna, Radha, Ganesha , Nataraja etc.
Tanjore paintings do effected heavily by the modern times but the artisans still trying their best so that these paintings can survive in the modern world. The changes in the Tanjore paintings are the material used in the design while the main design remains the same.Â