Raja Ravi Varma

Ravi Varma Koil Thampuran
Born 29 April 1848[1][2]
Kilimanoor, Travancore
Died 2 October 1906(1906-10-02) (aged 58)
Attingal, Travancore, British Raj
Occupation Painter, artist
Signature

Raja Ravi Varma Koil Thampuran[3] (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was a celebrated Indian painter and artist. He is considered among the greatest painters in the history of Indian art for a number of aesthetic and broader social reasons. Firstly, his works are held to be among the best examples of the fusion of European techniques with a purely Indian sensibility. While continuing the tradition and aesthetics of Indian art, his paintings employed the latest European academic art techniques of the day. Secondly, he was notable for making affordable lithographs of his paintings available to the public, which greatly enhanced his reach and influence as a painter and public figure. Indeed, his lithographs increased the involvement of common people with fine arts and defined artistic tastes among common people for several decades. In particular, his depictions of Hindu deities and episodes from the epics and Puranas have received profound acceptance from the public and are found, often as objects of worship, across the length and breadth of India.

Raja Ravi Varma was closely related to the royal family of Travancore in the deep south of India (Kerala and Tamil Nadu). Later in his life, two of his granddaughters were adopted into that royal family, and their descendants comprise the totality of the present royal family of Travancore, including the latest three Maharajas (Balarama Varma III, Marthanda Varma III and Rama Varma VII).

Personal life

Raja Ravi Varma was born at Kilimanoor palace in the erstwhile princely state of Travancore (present-day Kerala)[4] into an aristocratic family belonging to the Nair caste. The Nair caste follows the matrilineal Marumakkathayam system of reckoning lineage and succession. Therefore, Ravi Varma belonged to the family of his mother (not his father), and his children belonged to the family of their mother (not his own).

Varma's daughter Mahaprabha with one of her sons
Varma's sister-in-law, Bharani Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi, Senior Rani of Attingal (or Travancore), who adopted Varma's granddaughters in 1900 CE

Ravi Varma was the son of Ezhumavil Neelakanthan Bhattatiripad, a Brahmin gentleman, by his Nair wife Umayamba Thampurratti. His mother, Uma Ambabayi Thampuratty (or Umayamba Bayi Thampuratty), belonged to the baronial family which ruled the Kilimanoor feudal estate within the kingdom of Travancore. She was a poet and writer of some talent, whose work Parvati Swayamvaram was published by Varma after her death. In keeping with the Sambandam tradition of matrimony which was prevalent in those days, she was married to a Brahmin gentleman in preference to a man of her own Nair caste. Ravi Varma's father, Ezhumavil Neelakanthan Bhattatiripad, was a Namboodiri Brahmin and a very learned scholar of Sanskrit and Ayurveda who hailed from the Ernakulam district in Kerala. Ravi Varma had three siblings, a sister named Mangala Bayi, and two brothers named Goda Varma (born 1854) and Raja Varma (born 1860). The last-named was also a painter and worked closely with Ravi Varma all his life.

In 1866, at the age of 18, Varma was married to 12-year-old Bhageerthi Bayi (known formally as Pooruruttati Nal Bhageerathi Bayi Thampuratty) of the royal house of Mavelikkara, another major fief of Travancore kingdom. Notably, the house of Mavellikara was a branch of the Royal House of Travancore. Bhageerthi was the youngest of three sisters, and both of her elder sisters had been adopted into the royal family of Travancore in 1857, in order to carry on the lineage. They were known as the Senior and Junior Rani of Attingal, and in their progeny was vested the succession to the throne of Travancore. Therefore, Ravi Varma's connection to the royal family became very close due to his marriage with Bhageerthi. Indeed, his children (because they belonged to their mother's family) would be royal by birth. The marriage, which was arranged by their parents in the proper Indian manner, was harmonious and successful. The couple were blessed with five children, being two sons and three daughters. Their elder son, Kerala Varma (b.1876) was of an excessively spiritual temperament. He never married and eventually renounced the world, leaving home for good in 1912. The younger son, Rama Varma (born 1879), inherited his father's artistic talent and studied at the JJ School of Arts, Mumbai. He was married to Gowri Kunjamma, sister of Dewan PGN Unnithan, and became the father of seven children.

It was however Ravi Varma's daughters who were singled out by destiny for greatness, although not in the field of art, and not personally but through their daughters. The three daughters of Ravi Varma and Bhageerthi Bayi were Mahaprabha Amma (who features in two of Varma's most famous paintings), Uma Amma (named after Varma's mother) and Cheria Kochamma. In 1900 CE, the Royal House of Travancore once again faced a succession crisis. Bhageerthi's two elder sisters, who had been adopted in order to carry forward the lineage, had failed to produce the desired heirs. They had had six children between them, but only two of those had survived, and both were boys (who also, incidentally, later died childless). According to the matrilineal Marumakkathayam system, the succession to the throne could only progress through females, and therefore it was necessary to make an adoption. Tradition dictated that two girls belonging to branches of the Royal Family be adopted together. They would be designated the Senior and Junior Rani of Attingal, and the succession to the throne of Travancore would be vested in their progeny, in accordance with the unusual and unique Marumakkathayam system of succession.

Two of Verma's grand-daughters were called by destiny to receive this surpassing honour, the main reason being that they were the nearest matrilineal (cognatic) kin to the incumbent Rani of Attingal. In August 1900, Mahaprabha's eldest daughter Lakshmi Bayi (aged 5 years) and Uma's eldest daughter Parvati Bayi (aged 4 years) were adopted into the Royal family of Travancore. It was Bharani Thirunal Lakshmi Bayi, their surviving grand-aunt, who formally adopted them. She died within one year of doing this, and the two girls were then installed as the Senior and Junior Ranis of Attingal respectively. They were married while yet in their early teens to two Nair gentleman from suitable aristocratic families. It was the Junior Rani, Sethu Parvathi Bayi, who gave birth to the much-awaited heir in 1912, exactly the day after her sixteenth birthday. Incidentally, her husband was a grand-nephew of Raja Ravi Varma and belonged to Kilimanoor. The new born child was the future Maharaja Chithira Thirunal, the last ruling Maharaja of Travancore. He was followed by a brother (the future Maharaja Marthanda Varma III) and a sister Lakshmi Bayi, the mother of Maharaja Rama Varma VII who is presently on the throne (since 2013). Meanwhile, the Senior Rani (Sethu Lakshmi Bayi, daughter of Mahaprabha Amma, and Regent in the period 1924-31) also gave birth to two daughters later in life (in 1923 and 1926).

In this way, the entire present (existing) royal family of Travancore are descended from Raja Ravi Varma. Well known among his royal descendants are the writers Aswathi Thirunal Gowri Lakshmi Bayi and Shreekumar Varma, the artist Rukmini Varma and the classical musician Aswathi Thirunal Rama Varma.

Art career

Varma was patronized by Ayilyam Thirunal, the then Maharajah of Travancore and began formal training thereafter.[5] He learned the basics of painting in Madurai. Later, he was trained in water painting by Rama Swami Naidu and in oil painting by Dutch portraitist Theodor Jenson.

The studio used by Varma during his stay at the Laxmi Vilas Palace

The British administrator Edgar Thurston was significant in promoting the careers of Varma and his brother.[6] Varma received widespread acclaim after he won an award for an exhibition of his paintings at Vienna in 1873. Varma's paintings were also sent to the World's Columbian Exposition held in Chicago in 1893 and he was awarded three gold medals.[7] He travelled throughout India in search of subjects. He often modelled Hindu Goddesses on South Indian women, whom he considered beautiful. Ravi Varma is particularly noted for his paintings depicting episodes from the story of Dushyanta and Shakuntala, and Nala and Damayanti, from the Mahabharata. Ravi Varma's representation of mythological characters has become a part of the Indian imagination of the epics. He is often criticized for being too showy and sentimental in his style but his work remains very popular in India. Many of his fabulous paintings are housed at Laxmi Vilas Palace, Vadodara.[8]

Raja Ravi Varma Press

Mrs. Ramanadha Rao & son

Apparently on the advice of the then Dewan (Prime Minister) of Travancore, T. Madhava Rao, Ravi Varma started a lithographic printing press in Ghatkopar, Mumbai in 1894 and later shifted it to Malavli near Lonavala, Maharashtra in 1899. The press was managed by Varma's brother, Raja Varma. In 1901 the press was sold to his printing technician from Germany, Mr. Schleicher and later closed down after it was gutted in an accidental fire.[9] The oleographs produced by the press were mostly of Hindu gods and goddesses in scenes adapted mainly from the Mahabharata, the Ramayana and the Puranas. These oleographs were very popular and continued to be printed in thousands for many years, even after the 1906 death of Ravi Varma.

Honours

In 1904, Viceroy Lord Curzon, on behalf of the British King Emperor, bestowed upon Varma the Kaisar-i-Hind Gold Medal. A college dedicated to fine arts was also constituted in his honour at Mavelikara, Kerala. Raja Ravi Varma High School at Kilimanoor was named after him and there are many cultural organizations throughout India bearing his name. In 2013, the crater Varma on Mercury was named in his honor.[10] Considering his vast contribution to Indian art, the Government of Kerala has instituted an award called "Raja Ravi Varma Puraskaram", which is awarded every year to people who show excellence in the field of art and culture.

List of major works

The following is a list of the prominent works of Ravi Varma.

Gallery

In popular culture

Bibliography

English

Malayalam

Marathi

See also

Notes and references

  1. ↑ Joshi, Om Prakash (1985). Sociology of Indian art. Rawat Publications. p. 40.
  2. ↑ K.R.N. Swamy (28 April 2002). "A great painter, no doubt, but controversial too". Spectrum–The Tribune. Retrieved 28 October 2014.
  3. ↑ "Restoring works of art". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  4. ↑ PAL, DEEPANJANA (2011). THE PAINTER. Random House India. ISBN 9788184002614. Retrieved 18 April 2015.
  5. ↑ "The Diary of C. Rajaraja Varma"
  6. ↑ Mitter, Partha (1994). Art and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1850-1922: Occidental Orientations. Cambridge University Press. pp. 69, 193, 208. ISBN 978-0-52144-354-8.
  7. ↑ Kilimanoor Chandran, Ravi Varmayum Chitrakalayum(in Malayalam), Department of Culture, Kerala, 1998.
  8. ↑ Vadodara, Lakshmi Vilas Palace. "Raja Ravi Varma Paintings, Vadodara". www.historyofvadodara.in.
  9. ↑ Raja Ravi Varma Prints - Google Sites http://sites.google.com/site/ravivarmalithos/
  10. ↑ "Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature".

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