Exposing sepia-tinted memories of a rich past

The royal family of Travancore owns many simple and neatly built palaces most of them centred near the southeast corner of the Sree Padmanabhswami Temple in Thiruvananthapuram. Palaces in the Fort area are called the Valia Kottaram Palace Complex. Each ruler out of respect and reverence never lived in the palace of his predecessor. Thus arose many palaces in the Fort area which also has the much revered Sree Padmanabhaswami temple, the abode of the titular deity of the rulers of Travancore.

The Ranga Vilasam Palace which was constructed by Maharaja Swati Tirunal, the monarch-musician in 1839, will now take on the mantle of a heritage gallery-cum-museum when it is formally inaugurated on July 12. It was Sri Chithra Tirunal, who took the initiative to establish an art gallery in this admirable structure. His visit to Europe in 1933, urged him to open an art gallery in Travancore too. This gallery housed many artifacts, Kathakali figurines, Kerala utensils, bell metals vessels, ivory articles, paintings, bronze pieces, china wares, many curios and private collections of the Maharajas who ruled Travancore. However, the art gallery ceased to function in the post-Independence period.

The present maharaja, Sree Uthradam Tirunal Marthanda Varma, who is an eminent photographer and has a rich collection of 10,000 pictures neatly catalogued, wished that the public too have a glimpse of the sepia tinted frames which were virtually slices from an eventful and culturally rich past. He decided to convert the Ranga Vilasam lying vacant to a museum of rare photographs. “It is not possible to display all the pictures in the gallery and selection of 200 pictures was not easy,” admits the Maharaja. His idea was to blow up the pictures to large impressive dimensions so as to enhance the visual appeal. The Maharaja entrusted the renowned press photographer B Jayachandran, photo-editor Malayala Manorama, with this onerous task.

Says Jayachandran, “It took two years to work on the selected frames to give it a larger than life size on canvas. Restoring the pictures also was a manner of reconstructing the blurred events in the history, life and times in the erstwhile state of Travancore. The images that lost clarity were sharpened and the 200 pictures now look fresh but have not lost the mood of the times that it is meant to reflect.”

Visitors would be provided with a head phone so that they can hear a detailed description of each frame, he added. He is also producing a documentary on Travancore to be screened at the gallery. His photographs of Lakshadeepam 2008 (which is observed once in six years) also finds a place in the gallery. 
   
It was Arunacahalam Pillai who brought photopidikkunna ynatram or the first-ever camera to Travancore in 1850. Obviously he took the photographs of the Maharaja. The oldest photograph in the collection was of Ayilayam Tirunal Maharaja (1832-1880) with this wife, taken by the reputed photographers from Calcutta, Bourne and Shepherd. This happens to be one among the priceless collection titled ‘Album of Cartes de visite portraits of Indian rulers and notables’ by Zachariah Curzon.

When Swami Vivekananda visited Travancore in 1892, Prince Aswati Tirunal Marthanda Varma BA, (the first prince among the Indian princes to become a graduate) took the photograph of this great son of India. This rare picture also finds a place in the gallery along with the photograph of the prince.

 Successive maharajas had taken interest in commissioning a photographer. Sree Mulam Tirunal appointed William D’ Cruz (D Cruz Junior) as the palace photographer. His collections were compiled by George Nathaniel Curzon who was the Under Secretary of the State (1895-98) and more familiar to us as Lord Curzon, the Viceroy of India during the turn of the 19th century.

The compilation ‘Album of the South Indian Views’ is a valuable collection of pictures which include adoption of the senior and junior Ranis — Sethu Lekshmi Bhayi and Sethu Parvathi Bhayi in 1900 when they were hardly six and four years old.

D Cruz’ other works include the royal wedding of these two princesses, the picture of Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple (1895), the Public Office (1900), the Chief Engineer’s Office (1900), the crowd gathered at the Eastern entrance of the temple on hearing the birth of Sree Chithira Tirunal in 1912, and many more.

 Horatio Kitchener, the first Earl of Kitchener of Khartoum and Broome (1850-1916) was the commander-in-chief of India (1902-09), too compiled rare pictures of Travancore ‘Miscellaneous views in India.’ These photographs and the ones taken by N Hariharan and G K Vale were the frozen moments of history which include the investiture ceremony of Sree Chithria Tirunal, the royal weddings, the bi-annual temple festivals.

The maharaja, a good photographer, has recorded for posterity many precious events and places. The aerial view of Thiruvananthapuram taken in 1936 focusing Sree Padmanabhaswami Temple and its suburbs is a breathtaking one.

“My brother Chithira Tirunal presented me a Leica camera in 1936. I was only 13 then. He had discovered my penchant for the frozen frames some years ago during a trip to Mahabalipuram. Handing over a camera, he stoked my interest with the remark, ‘Use the films and click all that you desire. I shall then show it to the people, who will be able to assess the quality of your efforts. Only if they assure me of the potential they can identify in the photographs, will I give you the camera.’ My effort matched the conditions he had set I believe because to this day it has remained in my possession.”

The pictures taken by Uthradam Tirunal Marthanda Varma include unique pictures of the royal family members and royal functions. The maharaja, now 88, was a globe trotter and thus his collections are not limited to Travancore alone. Selected pictures are neatly displayed. The maharaja has a sharp memory and he could identify the personalities and events in each and every stills.