Preserving Southern Indian Mural Painting
Documenting an Endangered Heritage
Between 1989 and 2020, art historian Anna L. Dallapiccola documented mural paintings across Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Goa, building one of the most comprehensive records of this endangered heritage. The resulting 2,500 photographs cover Vijayanagara-Nayaka period murals from the 16th to 19th centuries, many of which have since been lost to water damage, fungi, vandalism, and temple renovation. Hosted on the InvenioRDM platform and compliant with the International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF), the archive provides open, long-term access for researchers, conservationists, students, and the public.
Geo-Visualisation: Tracing Every Site on the Map
A key feature of the project is its geo-visualisation capability, which allows every mural to be precisely located on a map, enabling users to trace documentation across regions and explore geographic patterns in mural traditions. For a heritage that has historically been difficult to locate and access, with some temples opening only once a year, this spatial dimension is transformative.
Annotated Images for Deeper Scholarly Inquiry
The repository implements the Web Annotation Data Model (WADM), enabling scholars to attach structured annotations directly to individual murals or specific details within them. Researchers can record iconographic observations, note conservation concerns, compare stylistic features across sites, and contribute new knowledge to the record over time. This standards-based annotation layer transforms the archive from a static visual record into a living scholarly resource, allowing the collection to grow in depth and interpretive richness with each new contribution.
