Many works of art in the various temples of Tamil Nadu,
belonging to the Cholas, Nayaks, Sangam age, etc., have been
wiped out wholly or partially As Gandhirajan said, Tamil Nadu
has had a continuous painting tradition of more than 4,000
years, beginning from rock-art, paintings in dolmens, Sangam age
murals (which are not available), the Pallava murals, the Chola
frescoes, the Pandya murals, the Vijayanagara (Nayak period)
paintings, those of the Maratha school and so on. There are more
than 50 temples in Tamil Nadu, which have exquisite murals of
the Pallava, the Chola, the Nayak and the Maratha periods. A
couple of palaces - the Ramalinga Vilas at Ramanathapuram and
the Padmanabhapuram Palace in Kanyakumari district too have
murals. At the centre of destruction of murals in temples are
the HR and CE officials. They have not only whitewashed murals
in many temples but continue to sandblast sculptures and
inscriptions, disfiguring them. In the name of renovation and
kumbabhishekam, the HR and CE officials ha