Revelation & Reverences: The Evolution of Lithographs & Prints
The commercial aim of lithography was to produce prints on a large scale, portraying deities and myths of Hindu tradition to a newly created consumer market for devotional images.
From 1870 onwards chromolithographs became a medium through which art, until then unaffordable, was made accessible to the mass population of India. One of the most important lithographic enterprises, Calcutta Art Studio, was set up as early as 1868. Then came the Ravi Varma Press that worked diligently towards popularising images of Hindu gods and deities between 1895 and 1903.
Lithographs by popular artists post 1910. These lithographs were not produced at the Calcutta Art Studio or Ravi Varma Press, but at newer presses that subsequently emerged across the subcontinent.
Other lithographic presses, especially in Maharashtra and Northern India, continued to make prints of popular devotional subjects. Artists of the time, namely Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar, C. G. Ramanujam, B. P. Banerjee, A. M. Mali, G. V. Venkatesh Rao and others worked diligently at giving new form and definition to historical stories, as well Hindu gods and goddesses.
In this story, we showcase the progression of the popular print and how artists combined diverse backgrounds and sources to create new ways of imaging and representing Hindu gods and goddesses.
Ramrajyabhiseka (1925) by MV DhurandharSandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
Ramarajyabhishek by M.V. Dhurandhar
Mahadev Vishwanath Dhurandhar, (18 March, 1867 - 1 June, 1944) was a highly regarded painter and a contemporary of Ravi Varma. Among his most popular paintings are his illustrations of average colonial-era women and scenes from mythology.
Besides divinity, Dhurandhar also portrayed mythological tales, chief among them being stories of Shivaji, the great Maratha emperor. Here, the artist shows the king paying obeisance to the illustrious sage Ramdas. RIGHT: Though G. V. Venkatesh Rao was not as well known as Dhurandhar, the former, a court painter in Mysore, was highly talented as his depiction of gods and mythology reveals. The scene depicted in Venulola is that of Rukmini and Satyabhama pining for Krishna's attention.
Another popular artist of the time was Bamapada Banerjee, more popularly known as B.P. Banerjee (1851 - 1932). A student of the Calcutta Art School, he went on to work under German printmaker Karl Becker who lived in Calcutta in the 1870s. Banerjee received a prize in an exhibition organized by the Society for the Promotion of Industrial Art in 1879.
Bamapada Banerjee’s popularity rests on his paintings illustrating Hindu mythology. He was deeply influenced by genres of European history painting. He has created a series of paintings around the story of Shantanu and Ganga.
C.G. Ramanujam is believed to have worked in the Ravi Varma Press under the master artist. Yet his style of painting is heavily influenced by Tanjore art, the details of which clearly reflect in these prints of Lord Krishna that were made in the Ravi Varma Press. Ramanujam was one of the few artists who established the trend of signing lithographs with their own names, the others being Banerjee, Mali and Venkatesh Rao.
Krishna plays his flute beneath the flowering Kadamba tree. Krishna's expression, his jewellery, as well as the bright tones used in the lithograph are reminiscent of a Tanjore style painting. A similar stylistic treatment is seen in the other lithograph of Sri Radha Rukmini Krishna by Ramanujam. The placement of Krishna with Radha and Rukmini beneath an ornate arch is also borrowed from Tanjore-style paintings.
As far as popular themes go, the coronation of Lord Rama, or Rama Pattabhishekam takes centre stage as opposed to the story of his birth.
The production of these prints, painted by various artists from diverse backgrounds and cultures made an important impact on the development of modern Hinduism.
Text & Interpretation: Archana Shenoy and Ravi Chakravarthy
Reference: Gods in Print: Masterpieces of India's Mythological Art
Images: From the collection of Sandeep & Gitanjali Maini Foundation
