The importance of the palace lies in its mural paintings which belong to an exclusive school of artists, whose technique and workmanship is considerably different from the other schools of Indian art. These murals are in the best tradition of the Hindu art, religious, decorative and stylized. They are painted in rich, warm colours and in the technique tempera.
Early references to Chitrasala occur in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, wherein three types of Chitrasalas are referred to, viz., the Palaces, the Public art galleries and Private houses. The paintings at Mattancherry Palace belong to the first category wherein some of the rooms were converted into Chitrasalas. Five rooms in this palace palliyarai or Bed chamber, Staircase room or Kovanitalam, Tripunitura Appan (another Bed chamber) room and two Ladies chambers in the lower storey – contain paintings.
This Palliyarai or Royal Bed chamber located in the south – west corner of the Palace measuring 9.40 m x 5.10 m, contains paintings on the three walls – east, west and south. The height of the wall is 2.6 m. wooden edging is fixed at a height of 125 metre from the floor level and the paintings are executed over the available wall space between the edging and the wooden ceiling. Below the wooden edging some chequered and square designs mostly in ochre colour can be seen.
A careful observation indicates that the paintings were done in two phases. The first is represented by two panels of Krishna Lila on the eastern wall and the second phases are represented by the complete depiction of the Ramayana scenes. The two panels of Krishna – Lila and the two paintings above the door jambs on the eastern side are earlier in point of time for the following reasons.
1 The colours used for paintings the Ramayana scenes is different from the colours used for the two panels of Krishna-Lila; the colours of the later are light when compared to the dark colours used for the former. Further yellow is dominantly used in the Krishna – Lila panels whereas green predominates in the Ramayana scene.
2 If the Ramayana panels are earlier, there was no necessity for the artist to draw the Krishna – Lila panels in between the Ramayana panels. All these indicates that the Krishna – Lila panels were already in existence probably towards the end of the sixteenth century, during which period, the influence of Narayana Bhattathiri, the author of famous Narayaniyam, a Sanskrit poem condensing the Bhagavata and giving the glory of Guruvayur Krishna, which was very popular in Malabar, before the execution of the Ramayana paintings. Hence, the Ramayana paintings which are later than the Krishna – Lila paintings can be easily ascribed to the beginning of the seventeenth century AD.