The mural paintings of Kerala have taken great popularity among the masses. However, the process, technique and even the canvas have now changed. From wall to thick cotton canvas and now to designer sarees: low quality, digital prints; from natural colours to using artificial colours and from handmade brushes to synthetic, somewhere in the course of time the value and respect of this original art form seems to have been lost.

The earliest paintings in India had been found in primitive caves and rock shelters such as Bhimbetka (Madhya Pradesh) and Ajantha caves. The term ‘mural’ is said to be derived from the Latin word ‘murus’, meaning wall. Murals refer to the paintings illustrated on visual components like the wall, ceiling and other long-lasting surfaces.

The tradition of painting on walls began in Kerala with the pre-historic rock paintings found in the Anjanad valley of Idukki district. Archaeologists presume that these paintings belong to different periods from upper Paleolithic period to early historic period. Rock engravings dating to the Mesolithic period have also been discovered in two regions, at Edakkal in Wayanad district and at Perimkadavila in Thiruvanathapuram district of Kerala.