Savoring and Saving India’s Frescoes

In this poor, sleepy town of 45,000 the roads are unpaved, and camels, donkeys and cows share the narrow streets with Jeeps and buses that raise dust so thick the pedestrians cough.

Bur Mandawa has a distinction that makes it a gem among cities.

In this town and surrounding villages in the state of Rajasthan in northwest India is a treasure that has been seen by few in the West and is in danger of disappearing. A collection of several thousand wall paintings date to the mid-18th Century and decorate old mansions, forts, temples and cenotaphs in 23 villages.

They are threatened with destruction by people and the elements. If they disappear, their beauty is gone forever; they are preserved in no museums.

Warrior Patrons

The frescoes were created by teams of artisans whose early patrons were the Rajputs--members of the ruling warrior castes--who ordered paintings in the rooms of forts or cenotaphs commemorating heroes.

But the major works are on the walls of the havelis , the mansions of wealthy merchants who traded in opium, salt, indigo, grain and cloth between India and China in the East and Europe, Africa, Persia and Arabia in the West.

They constructed three-to-five-story houses with 30 rooms, and had the facades, courtyards, parapets and ceilings covered with frescoes. They also ordered paintings on temples, pilgrim rest houses, even on wells they built.

Living Museums

The result is an astonishing artistic heritage. One walks through the labyrinth of streets and suddenly comes upon a huge, colorful elephant or a prancing horse and rider. It is as if Mandawa and its neighboring villages were living museums.

The paintings’ themes are based on religion, mythology, legend, daily life and royalty. Two favorite scenes are Krishna fighting the elephant demon or Krishna as Lord of the Milkmaids, carrying off the milkmaids’ clothing while they are bathing.

Other visions show brass bands, festival parades and family weddings, lines of camels, horses or elephants and, in newer paintings, railway trains.

After 1900, fresco artists often painted from British photographs and etchings, and instead of elephants and local gods one can see the likenesses of Queen-Empress Victoria, George V and Queen Mary, angels and even English gentlemen riding bicycles and motorcycles.

In some bedrooms, erotic paintings are meant to be seen only behind closed doors; they are hidden behind doors that are kept open during the day.

Persian Inspiration

Rajasthani frescoes are flat and linear, with stylized faces, unlike European frescoes where there is shade, light and roundness. They were influenced by the Jaipur and Mughal schools of Indian painting that had been inspired by Persian art.

The painters began with natural pigments such as lampblack, chalk or lime, indigo, terra verte, geru (a red stone powder), saffron and yellow clay. Later they got blue soda ash from Germany, and the newer paintings have artificial reds and blues. The colors are still sharp where the paintings were under ledges that offered protection from sun and rain.

The fresco technique came from the East--Japan, China, Thailand and Burma--and was close to the Italian system developed around the 14th Century that used water with pigment whereby in a chemical process the lime acted as an adhesive.

Broad Effects

The mortar for the walls of brick or stone was prepared from fine clay, with three layers: lime and gravel or brick dust, lime and marble dust and fine lime dust. The design was drawn and painted while the top layer was damp. The artists had to work fast, which led them to concentrate on broad effects, not the exquisite detail of Indian miniature painters.

As the wall dried, a chemical reaction between the plaster and pigment sealed the painting with the plaster so that they became one. That’s the reason for their survival after as many as 200 years of exposure.

Fresco secco was used after the appearance around 1870 of chemical dyes that reacted adversely with the damp walls but could be used on dry plaster.

The frescoes date from 1750 to the British period, ending in 1930, although most were painted between 1860 and 1900. Patronage weakened at the turn of the century as modernization ended the relationship between patron and artist and also brought the competition of photography and printing.

After World War II the merchants who had gone to the cities did not return to their havelis in the villages. Today the mansions are in disrepair, locked and empty or inhabited by caretakers or peasant families.

In Mandawa the bazaar is dotted with painted houses, some of which are now shops. A fresco graces a tailor’s shop or is the backdrop for a fruit and vegetable seller.

Fading Colors

Sadly, the paintings are bleaching out fast, being destroyed by natural and man-made forces. In some there is no color left, just the outlines of figures.

Damage is caused by both men and beasts. Pigeons and owls roost in the eaves; a goat is tethered in one haveli courtyard. In another, frescoes of flowers over the door arches are blackened by the open cooking fires of the peasants who live there.

A few years ago a big rain spoiled many frescoes. Salt has reached up to four or five feet on most buildings and is eating into the plaster and causing it to fall.

None of the paintings have been restored. Some of the buyers of the houses have painted over the frescoes.

Ignorant of the Pearl

“The people who live there don’t realize the value of the paintings, like the shell doesn’t know the value of the pearl,” said Kripal Singh Shekhawat, 62, an artist involved in efforts to begin preservation. “Even when they do, some of the owners don’t want to pay for restoration.”

Singh, a man with white hair and black horn-rimmed glasses, was dressed in a traditional dhoti and brown vest with Nehru collar over a white shirt. He sat in the candlelight on the roof of Castle Mandawa, a huge medieval fort built in 1755 when the town was founded and now a hotel. He had come to speak with a group of Americans who were in Mandawa on a Special Expeditions tour. He said it was the first visit by an American tour group.

Singh said people in the area began talking about restoration two years ago. The Cultural Heritage and Shekhawati Trust was started in January, 1984, and in December co-sponsored a conference with the Indian National Trust of Art that brought together art experts from Germany, England, France and India. They concluded that it will take at least two years to establish workshops to train people in the techniques of fresco painting and preservation. Singh has been made director of Chitram, a school set up in Mandawa to teach those techniques.

Practical Projects Too

The trusts plan to seek aid from foreign and Indian organizations to pay for the restoration. They would also like do something about sanitation and drainage in the villages and build ring roads around them to cut out heavy traffic.

Only 200 to 300 tourists a month visit Mandawa, up from just a trickle before 1980. The increase is almost all French, the result of a 1980 visit organized for French journalists by Dominique Lapierre, author of “Freedom at Midnight,” an international best seller about India’s independence struggle. A few Germans and Italians now also visit, but there have been only a handful of Americans visitors, most of whom work at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi about 125 miles northeast.

Special Expeditions

The only American tour company that goes to Mandawa is Special Expeditions, 720 Fifth Ave., New York, 10019, phone (212) 765-7740, which includes it as part of a 2 1/2-week tour of Rajasthan. There are no organized visits for individual travelers, but one can hire guides at set government rates.

The most important buildings are along the main streets or around the fort, and maps pointing them out are being prepared. Most of the houses are open; if they are not, a caretaker will usually let tourists in.

The only place to stay in Mandawa is the Castle Mandawa, turned into a hotel in 1981 to accommodate the new visitors. It has 25 rooms, $19.20 for a single and $26.40 double. One can use it as a base for visiting some of the other towns with haveli paintings.

For reservations, contact Old Mandawa House, Sansar Chandra Road, Jaipur 302001, Rajasthan, India; phone (914) 75358. The hotel’s address is Mandawa, District Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan 333704; phone 24.