Krishen Khanna: Chola Migrations

It is a celebration of the wonderful history and achievements of the Cholas of Southern India during, roughly, the tenth to the fourteenth centuries. It represents the religion-centred culture they built and enriched in their own lands along the Coromandel coast, their conquests on the Indian sub-continent and of Sri Lanka, and their bold ventures across the Indian Ocean to trade in luxurious goods with the peoples they found further east.

The theme Khanna chose for this mural is historical rather than mythical, celebrating the outgoing activities of the Chola. He offers us a vision of families and animals on the land, going about their various tasks amid palm trees and rocks, including carrying goods from the ships, and then the ships and the men on them, venturing forth into heavy seas. Filled with strong, majestic figures, the negative tonal idiom shows how compositions rendered with quiet control, like the leaves of palm trees, or a dramatic black bird, can give the world its rhythmical cohesion.