Raja Ravi Varma: Kesar-i-Hind

Devi Saraswati by Raja Ravi Varma

Raja Ravi Varma: Kesar-i-Hind

Today is 2^nd October, and we all know it is birthday of Gandhiji and Lal bahadur Shastriji. However, I’m not writing on them today. It is 109^th death anniversary of Raja Ravi Varma. People must have heard this name, but sadly, they don’t know much about Raja Ravi Varma. Well, I’m going to talk about him.

Raja Ravi Varma

Raja Ravi Varma was one of the greatest painters this nation has ever seen. He was born in Killiminore of British India. He was an artist from his childhood. Yes, art was in his soul. At the young age when he married, he started his true painting career. Initially, he didn’t succeed. But then the king of Travancore himself appreciated his arts. And for your kind information, Raja Ravi Varma was not a king of any state. He was awarded with the title of Raja by King of Travancore, so that no could underestimate an artist. Raja Ravi Varma was king of art.

He had to later move to Bombay due to accidental death of King of Travancore, where he was welcomed by Madhavrao ji who was incharge of Bombay under the King of Baroda State, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad. His glory spread in all over the country and he was even praised by Britishers. Then, one day Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad himself called him to Baroda and asked him to go Europe and make copies of incredible arts for his palace. However, Raja Ravi Varma refused to copy, and he asked him to give him opportunity to create own arts. Maharaja approved. Raja Ravi Varma believed that India had the vast culture and epics. We have Ramayana and Mahabharata, which have many incredible stories. But Raja Ravi Varma asked time to travel the whole country to understand from where these stories of Ramayana and Mahabharata began. Maharaja sponsored him to travel. When he finished travelling, his head was full of stories and creativity. He painted all the stories of Mahabharata and Ramayana, and it was the first time when the gods received faces. Raja Ravi Varma painted gods for the first time. The paintings which we worship in our temples, or we decorate our homes and we use them on tiles, are actually painted by Raja Ravi Varma. Most of the people don’t know that. But for your information, I would attach few works of him.

Then, Raja Ravi Varma requested Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad for an open exhibition. He wanted common public to see those arts and review them. Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad arranged an open exhibition in his tremendous Laxmi Vilas palace, and all people were welcomed to see those arts. And poor people who hadn’t seen gods with faces, started worshipping in front of those paintings. No one could believe that gods could look like us. But Raja Ravi Varma did it. He poured life into those mythological stories, and he gave faces to gods and goddesses. The sarees he painted of goddesses, became new trend in the market. Then he started his own printing press to print those paintings, so that they could reach at each home of this country. In those days, the lower caste people weren’t allowed in the temples and they hadn’t seen gods. But Raja Ravi Varma gave them gods through his paintings. Everyone could buy those paintings and decorate their homes with them. Now you know that glory of Raja Ravi Varma.

However, his late works had nudity in paintings, which was natural. You see our temples and engravings of the temples, you’ll see the Kamasutra carved in the temples. Raja Ravi Varma portrayed Apsaras and goddesses as they were mentioned in epics. But few religious organizations accused him to mislead people and spreading nudity in public. However, Raja Ravi Varma won the case and he explained people that this is a country where the Kamasutra was created. It is in our culture. That’s not nudity. That’s what life is. Why should we ashamed of anything? And the world accepted his painting gladly. However, still few organizations are opposing his paintings, but no one could deny that fact that he painted master-pieces.

The stories we know now, the gods we see in our homes and temples, all credits belong to Raja Ravi Varma. If he hadn’t done that, we could never see gods. That’s why later, he was awarded as Kesar-i-Hind by British Government. His paintings are still secured in the Royal Museum at Vadodara. If you people desire to watch them, or you have any curiosity for art and culture, you may visit Vadodara and the museum.

Hall of Laxmi Vilas Palace where the first exhibition was arranged

Dadasaheb Phalke, who is known as the father of Indian Cinema, was young at that time. He was financially helped by Raja Ravi Varma who was very keen to see the world with new technology named, Cinematography. Dadasaheb Phalke started his own Cinema and later it became Bollywood.

Now this was the greatest personality of Raja Ravi Varma. As I said, he was the king of art. He has been my inspiration since I studied about his life and paintings. And his glory is like the sun, which will stay forever. Vadodara still feels proud that the city was host and their Laxmi Vilas Palace was the first place where his paintings were first exhibited. 

Arts by Raja Ravi Varma:

First let me start with famous arts:

Goddess Lakshmi

Lord Ram, Sita, Laxman and Hanuman

Arjun and  Subhadra

Dattatreya

Ravan abducting Sita (Jatayu Vadh)

Shantanu and Satyavati

Shiva Parvati and Ganesha

Pandavas and Draupadi

Ganesha with Ashtasiddhi

Bharat (Son of Shakuntala and Dushyant)

Bhishma Oath

Death of Karna

Ganga Avtaran (Descend of Ganga)

Draupadi

Draupadi humiliated (Chiraharan)

Krishna as Envoy (Shantidoot at Hastinapur)

Mirabai

Mohini - Female Avatar of Lord Vishnu

Radha Madhavam

Yashoda and Krishna

Rama breaking the bow at Swayamwara

Lord Vishnu on Garuda

Ganga taking Bhishma away

Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad by Raja Ravi Varma

I showed you his major works, and you can imagine difficulties because they were made in 19th century. And you must have seen most of works before. If you want to know about his life and tragedies and if you don't like reading, you may see a movie named Rang Rasiya, directed by Ketan Mehta and Randip Hooda incredibly played role of Raja Ravi Varma. Thanks for reading. 

If you want to see more arts of Raja Ravi Varma, you may visit here : http://ravivarma.org/