13th c herbal paintings on idols found in sanctum sa'torum

Herbal paintings dating to the 13th century period on idols have been discovered in the sanctum sanctorum of a temple in a village here.
The paintings were discovered from Sri Ramaswamy temple at Pappankulam village by history professors of Annamalai University.
"The herbal paintings have been drawn during the period of both Pandias and later the Naickers,"according to Dravidian Historical Research Director L Ganapathy Murugan and Head of research team A Muthukutti.
An inspection of the temple last week on a request by former registrar of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University revealed that the main deities made of mortar had been beautifully painted in varied hues of black, blue, saffron, gold, white, yellow, ash and green, the said.

The paintings, dating to 1216-1244 AD period are similar to mural paintings of Chitrasabha temple in Coutrallam, they said, adding, the temple was now being renovated and the paintings would be kept intact.
What was unique was that the paints were not chemicals but made from herbs and had not faded even after centuries. Idols of Lord Rama,Seetha,Lakshman and Hanuman had come to life at the hands of great painters of that era, they said.