Old Frescoes of Parsurampura

Leaving the town of Nawalgarh, we made a little side detour to Parsurampura, a little village 20 km southeast of there to see some of the region’s best preserved and oldest frescoes. The Shamji Sharaf Haveli, dating back to the end of the 18th century, had particularly interesting motifs. Here we saw Hindu gods intermixed with images of Europeans. In one corner, a European-looking lady dressed in black clothes holding a parasol was depicted right above a local woman with a spinning wheel.

We then visited the Chhatri of Thakur Sardul Singh. From a distance, the white domed structure looked like nothing special. Looking up at its interior, we were treated to a visual feast. Dating back to the mid-18th century, the well-preserved images were painted with natural pigments – whereas most of the frescoes we had seen on buildings were done with artificial pigments. The deep reds, rich blacks, and tans provided a harmonious color palette. Following the curved contour of the dome were incredibly detailed battle scenes of the Hindu epic Ramayana, local noblemen, and the love story of Dhola Maru. Of similar style is the Gopinathji Mandir temple, built in 1742. Legend goes that the son of the nobleman who had the Chhatri built chopped off the hand of the artist (hoping that would prevent him from completing the temple paintings and retain exclusivity of the artist’s work), but the undeterred artist completed the temple paintings with his feet.

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