JOIN USBringing the gods home
The year was 1988 when the Maharaja of Vadodara Sayajirao Gaekwad III commissioned 14 mythological paintings to Raja Ravi Varma of Kilimanoor. One among them was Sita Swayamvaram from Ramayana. The Dewan of Vadodara, T Madhavrao, had earlier acquired two paintings of Raja Ravi Varma that had immensely impressed Sayajirao. One painting was ‘Sita’s ordeal’. Varma later painted and printed several scenes from the entire life of Lord Rama that became immensely popular with the public as well as art connoisseurs.
One ought to acknowledge the prolific artist Raja Ravi Varma’s ingenuity in bringing Lord Rama and other gods to people’s homes, literally and metaphorically.
A series of paintings and oleographs from Ramayana like Lord Rama, Jatayu Vadh, Rama Aur Ravana Yudh, Bharat Milap, Hanuman carrying the mountain with Sanjeevani Booti, Rama Sita Vivaah, among others were made into prints and calendar art. Apart from Ramayana, other mythological epics and stories were an important part of his vast oeuvre.
Though the gifted painter had painted the royal families of Vadodara, Mysore and Travancore and has many paintings from real-life subjects and events, it was his mythological paintings that made him popular among the masses. Most of these paintings were made during his Vadodara stay when he first came to the city in 1881 and then after 1888. Sayajirao built a studio for him at Motibaug where he stayed and painted. One of the largest collections of these paintings can still be seen in Gaekwad’s Laxmi Vilas Palace and Maharaja Fateh Singh museum in Vadodara.
Innovative approach
‘Raja Ravi Varma Portrait of an Artist: The Diary of C Raja Raja Varma’, written by his brother, is the most authentic source of information about this great artist. It states that the 14 mythological paintings by Varma were displayed for the public in the palace and it created a lot of sensation, attracting viewers from across the then Bombay Presidency. It was the first time that any painter had taken scenes out of the Ramayana and Mahabharata, giving them realistic human figures, relatable to everyone. The innovative approach of dramatisation of the scenes like the birth of Krishna, Sita Swayamvaram or disrobing of Draupadi, on large canvases, mesmerised them.
Prior to that, he had already established himself as an avant-garde painter from India having won awards and accolades at home and abroad. His 1873 sensuous portrayal of a ‘Nair lady adorning her hair’ had won him the Certificate of Merit in Vienna. Before his death in 1906, he was awarded Kaiser-i-Hind Gold Medal in 1904 by the British Government.
It was in 1893 that Raja Ravi Varma started a printing press at Bombay with financial help from Sayajirao. He produced affordable prints of the oleographs (a print textured to resemble an oil painting) and chromolithographs (a method of making multi-colour prints that includes all lithographs) of gods.
For centuries, gods were faceless entities confined to scriptures, sculptures, or symbols in temples. Large segments of population were even barred from worship in temples due to the strict caste system. Varma brought the gods to people’s homes, irrespective of caste, class and language across the country.
Self-taught artist
Born on April 29, 1848, at Kilimanoor in Kerala in a scholarly family, Raja Ravi Varma was a self-taught artist. By the age of seven, he was making illustrious paintings on walls with charcoal and by the age of 14, his art found patronage under Maharaja Ayilyam Thirunal, the ruler of Travancore. His talent dissuaded artists like Ramaswamy Naicker of Madurai who refused to teach him techniques of oil painting, envisioning him as a potential rival. Naicker’s student Arumugham Pillai secretly taught the nuances of oil painting to Varma. He also learnt from observing the European artist Theodore Jensen who was invited to Travancore.
Varma was a pioneer as he combined European realism with Indian traditional subjects and imagery using oil painting techniques. Unlike the miniature art, portraitures and landscape paintings prevalent then, Varma made realistic human forms in large canvases with nuanced detail and clever interplay of light and shadow. The dramatic effect could convey emotions of pain, anguish, love, care, worship, power, sensuousness and even eroticism.
He was also influenced by Tanjore paintings. The lustrous effect he created by deft strokes and his palette of colours is amazing. Epic heroines like Ahalya, Sita and Draupadi draped in sarees or jewels in Rama’s crown look luminescent and realistic with attention to the minutest of details.
Sachin Kaluskar, art curator in Vadodara, who has a rich collection of Varma’s oleographs, says Raja Ravi Varma laid the foundation of visual communication in India. He connected India through mythological visuals like never before, established India’s first colour printing press with German technology, build an efficient artistic team to assist him and was a successful businessman establishing himself as a brand.