Women as 'Calendar Art' Icons: Emergence of Pictorial Stereotype in Colonial India

Author(s): Tapati Guha Thakurta

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 26, No. 43 (Oct. 26, 1991), pp. WS91-WS99
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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 Women as 'Calendar Art' icons
Emergence of Pictorial Stereotype in (Alonial India
Tapati Guha Thakurin
Thispaper attemptsto tracethe genealogyof the kind of feminine images that have become the stock-type
for today's 'calendar'pictures to the intervention of thefirst tnass-p'-duced lithographs and oleographs in India's
popular art marketin the late 19thcentury.Both the imagesand the discoursesthat invest them with theirpar-
ticularvaluesareseen to havetheiroriginsin some criticalbreaksin techniques. perceptionand thoughtin colonial
India. The study focuses on the specific historical coniunctureof the late i9th century, when the disjunc-
tion with 'tradition'and the encounterwith 'modernity'assumed a sharp edge in all culturalrepresentations,
and the precursorsof modern 'bazaar'images emergedas a dominiant and stand .rtdisedmass-artform.
THE plethora of feminine images in the first section of the paper maps out certain geueial trends and tendencies, the paper
modern mass-media and the ideological specific stages of the intervc.;;tvei^3..
) h;os to dfine some of the main contours
typecastig of such imageryhaveincreasing- which a radicallychangedrnodc- ? piv-, ial of thc 'feminine' stereotype that came to
ly drawncriticalattention.Both feministand representationimpressed itsett on Iridiian dominate the modern mass-media of the
mediastudiesrecognisethe hegemonicgrip tastes, out of which, in turn, a new mass- country. And, in any case, as I argue, the
of such visual representationof women on art formula emerged. Taking a broad visual images throughoutremainedheavily
social attitudes and aspirations and their geographical sweep from Calcutta, down tingedby ideologicalconstructsof 'feminini-
insidiousrolein legitimisingexistingpatterns south and across to Bombay. it looks at ty' and 'Indianness'.While their formswere
of dominati'on.IThe all-pervasivenessof the intrusion of new techniiques and standardisedand duplicated,theirmeanings
the woman's image in advertisements, technologies, and equally at the way these weremediated upon and fixed by the para-
billboards,packages,hoardingsor films- werecontinuously adapted to the demands meters of this dominant discourse: a
the heightened visibility of women in the of the local art market.Hindu mythological discourse that waxed eloquent on 'ideal'
picturesthat surroundus at home and on imagery, occupied a central place in this Indian womanhood and on its symbolic
the streets-is itself seen to be problematic. transitionfrom popularart practicesto new representationof 'culture'and 'nation.
For the very process by which women are types of masspictureprodtiction.The reper-
deified and rendeitd central objects of at- toireof familiardivinitiesand mythological I
tention in popular representationsalso in- scenes formed a terrainof both continuity
volves"thecommoditisationof women and and change-of the two-way process "of Duringthe 1870sand 80s, the popularur-
the tropisingof the feminine'. As analysed interpretingthe modernexperiencein 'tradi- ban picturetradesof the countryunderwent
in a recentarticle,this results in the reduc- tional' terms and of the traditional forms a radicaloverhauland expansion. The cen-
tion gf women both to passive objects for themselves in terms of modern genres".5 tral transofrmationoccurredin the realmof
displayand appropriationand to signifiers The second section of the paper is concern- representational techniques and printing
of certainbroadernotionsof 'culture,'tradi- ed, particularly,with historicising the pat- technologies.In mid-19thcenturyCalcutta,
tion' and 'nation.2 The images, like these ternsof representingwomen that havecome traditionalartisangroups, like the Kalighat
concepts and allusions to which they refer, to markthe Indian'calendarart' stereotype. painters (a migrant community of village
stand firmlyentrenchedwithin a dominant Surveying a representativerange of the 'patuas' settled in the vicinity of the Kali
patriarchaldiscoursethat has, since the late earliest lithographsand oleographs on the templeat Kalighat)and the wood and metal
19thcenturycontinuouslyasserted itself in Indian mass-market,the paper studies the engraversof 'Bat-tala'(the hub of the early
the nameof Indian nationalism. Such pro- privilegingof the feminine image in these Bengali printing and book trade), were
cesses of representationand signification, pictures,as in all otherpictorialand cultural makingvariousadjustmentsto the facilities
for which the Indian cinema of both the genresof the time. In the context of the ad- and pressuresof the Calcutta market. But
popularand art-filmvarietiesprovidessome vent of new realistic, illusionist pictorial colonial art practice had driven in a sharp
of the most interestingexamples,] has also techniques,it analyses,the complexinterplay wedge between the 'artisan'and the 'artist,
been studiedwith regardto the typeof mass- of the 'real'and the 'mythic'in the fashion- betweenthe 'tratditional'and the 'modern',
producedcolourfulpicturesthat havecome ing and marketing of a new iconography cordoningoff an exclusivearea of 'high art'
to be loosely labelled as 'calendarart'.4 Gender featuredas the the central plank in from the wider sphereof 'bazaar' pictures
My paperattemptsto tracethe genealog) the constructionof new 'icons' The woman's that lay outside- And a decisive ,break
of the kind of feminine images that have image, like the very ideas ot womanliness occurredonly whenthe world of 'high art',
become the stock-typefor today's'calendar' and womanhood, exuded strong 'iconic' with its new social categoryof 'artists'and
pictures to the intervention of the first mass- potentials. If the changes in painting and its 'modern'forms and techniques,pressed
produced lithographs and oleographs in printing techniques gave the image a new dowrn or, the arena of popular picture pro-
India's popular art marketin the late 19th seductivetangibility,a parallelaccretionof duction. Notwithstanding their adaptation
century.Both the imagesand the discourses religious, mythic, aesthetic, social and to changing circumstances, K"lighat pain-
that invest them with their particular values politicalvaluestransformedthe saine imnage ting or the hand-painted Bat-tala engravings
are seen to havetheiroriginsin some a ritical into an 'icon.6 remained ielegated to the realm of the 'tradi-
breaks in techniques, perception and thought The absence of illustrationsin this arti- tional' and 'artisanal'. The competition pos-
in colonial India. My study focuses on the cle will, no doubt, provea mnajor handicap. ed by art school trained artists, armed with
specific historical conjuncture of the late Mere descriptions of pictures is a poor a superior social status and painting and
19th century, when the disjunction with substitutefor the actual visuals; I am aware printing expertise, led to the increasing
'tradition' and the encounter with 'moder- that they must close and pre-determine marginalisation of these 'traditional' pic-
nity' assumed a sharp edge in all cultural meanings even as they help the readerto tures and the proliferation of the market
representations, and the precursors of mentally conjure the pictures. Still, by by slick western style prints of Hindu
modern 'bazaar' images emerged as a domi- interlacingdescriptions of individual pic- mythological scenes.7 This intrusion cut
nant and standardisedmass-art form. The tures with a broad-rangingdiscussion of into the world of popular art in various

Economic and Political Weekly October 16, 1991 VS-91

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 ways. It raA,l Iy altered,as we will see, the
natureof the imagery, investing them with
a new credibility and dramatic potential,
whileat the same time reworkingtheiriconic
appeal. It also vastly enlarged, the scale of
production and multiplication of the pic-
tures, as well as the reach of their circula-
tion. The expansion of the public was both
social and geographical. The localised, non-
westernisedand largelyplebian clientele of
the pictures of Kalighat and Bat-tala
widened into an undifferentiated mass-
clientelethat spannedmany layersof educa-
tion and literacy.By the early 20th century,
with the widespreadmarketingof RajaRavi
Varma's oleographs, this clientele also
developeda cross-regional,all-India shape.
The new mass-producedpictureprints now
reachedout to the same amorphous public
thatwould be drawnin by the radioor, later,
the Hindi cinema.
By the late 19thcentury,various pockets
of popularart practicesthus gave way to a
dominant and increasingly homogenised
mass visual culture.It was a critical process
of displacementand transferranceof the old
into the new. Caught in its stride, the
antecedentsof today's 'bazaar' art replac-
ed the earlier'bazaar'artof the Blacktowns,
throughthe force of its 'modernised'skills
and technology. Such a process inevitably
leadsone to reflecton the fluidityof the very
categories of 'high' and 'bazaar' art-
categories which every period and society
reconstructin their own terms. Ideas and
judgmentsabout 'modern'and 'traditional'
styles, about 'refined' tastes as opposed to
the 'common' and 'vulgar: need to be
historicallysituated in the particularsocial
and ideological milieu in which they were
produced.8 Far from being fixed, the
perimetersof 'high'and 'low' tendto be con-
stantly shifting, even within a specific time
an d culturespan. It is the aestheticsof 'high'
art w hich, in defining itself, also mark out
of the are as of 'cheap'entertainment,'com-
mon' taste and standardised conventions
that are seen to characterisemass art. This
ongoing process of differentiationin draw-
ing and redrawingthe boundariesof 'high'
and '16w' identified the different stages
throughwhich thg new 'calendarart' genre
evolvedin modern India. While it establish-
ed the hierarchies of different pictorial
genres, it also spelt out the more subtle
gradationswithin the various q u alities and
typesof the feminineimagein these pictures.
The shifting, fluctuating nature of the
categories of 'high' and 'bazaar' art is
particularlyimportant to bear in mind as
one studies the genealogy of 'calendarart'
images in colonial India. For pictureswhich
have since exemplifiedkitsch and bad taste
originatei in a mode of representationand
a type of mnrthiciconographythat came to
prevailin late 19thcenturyIndia with all the
charismaof a 'high art' form. Oil and easel
paintings had established itself in British
Indiaas the exemplarof a new model of at'
With it, ha,darrived the style of academic
realismwitlnits persuasivepowersof 'dircly
WS-92
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apprehending the real',withits accompanyip4g tures aLndthe anticipation of the subsequent
elementsof perspective,three-dimensionality brand ot 'calendar art'. Closely knit together
and tactile illusionism. With it, a set of new in time and im pact, they were concentratedt
Europeangenres-life-size portraiture,pic- in the last decades of the 19th century. I
turesquelandscapes,oriental sceneries,and locate the fir;t major stage of the break in
neo-classicalcompositions-also intervened Calcutta, in the 1870s, in the novel
on the Indian scene, each bearing the in- phenomen.on of a group of 'gentlemen'
signia of colonial pomp and authority.The artists dive rting their expertise to the field
new genres and techniqums 7K.-e. inio iocal of popular commercial art. In 1878, some
practices under y degrees of volition ex-students of the Government School of
and pressure.In the first-halfof the 19thcen- Art, Calcutta, branched out from their
tury, the type of painting, broadly labelled careers as art school teachers, oil painters
as 'Company Schaol', produced for the and portraitists to set up their own litho-
British in the old court-centres and new graphy press in 'owbazar,called the Calcutta
presidencytowns, showed one clear level of Art Studio. While it under-took a wide range
adaptationof naturalisticmodes and 'copy- of commercialoart work, ranging from por-
ing' skills, tailoredto the colonial projectof trait painting and photc- -raphyto ornamen-
documenting native life, customs, 'trades tal alphabet stects arid1pagZedesiwn., the
and castes'" In the the mid-l9th I-entury, studio, kai. t tb est knv.. ; fo,r its
while the arrivalof photographygradually chrc.o.Allithoi aphis oi Hindtu mytholo)gical
effacedthe demandfor 'Company'painting, scenes.'2 These 'Htiridu mythth--pictures' (as
indigenous print-making increasingly thec;;were called) provicded onie of the main
openeditself to superiortechnologies.There, poi)ntsof cotinctinoVlonhetwve;;nthe 'high' and
trainingin refined techniques of engraving 'bazaar' art of thfs:clty. Th'}i, clearly indicate
or lithographyinevitablywent hand-in-hand the two-way pull---tih give and take of
with thc switching over to a 'realistic' influeices-in the nioulding of a new, viable
genre)0The medium and mode of oil pain- iconography. On the one hand, the arrival
ting were also taken up in a type of large of these pictures on the popular market
mythol,)gical picture produced in many brought the challenge of new stylistic and
regionsof 19thcenturyBengalin the 'native technical standards. The art school training
art centres of Calcutta, like Chitpur or gave these new print-makers a decisive edge
Garanhata,and in other areasof Europeset- over the artisan presses of Calcutta. On the
tlement, like Chinsuraor Chandernagore." othei hand, the western training and stan-
To suit the changing tastes of the local dards were indigenised at different levels to
'babus' and 'zamindars', these paintings accommodate.local tastes and fancies.
combined,in varyingproportions,naturalistic Operating in broadly the same zone and
anatomies and backgrouindsceneries with catering to a similar market, the art studio
decorativedesigningof costumes and all the pictures broke directly into the Bet-tala
iconographicattributesof divinities. Often, picture trade, displacing the engravings with
squatly rounded figures stood out against the force of a new 'realistic' rendering of
flattened backdrops and stiff puppet-like familiar mythological episodes. Their new
bodiesweretrussedup in the sheen and shine style contained the double allure of colour
of silk and gold. Still, such pictures were and tactile illusionism: of the simulation of
making their clear concessions to the tones, textures, substance and atmosphere
'modern' by appropriating the privileged The shift from the images of Kalighat and
genre of oil painting. In all these cases of Battala to those of the Calcutta Art Studio
diffusion of new forms and techniques,the involves a significant metamorphosis-we
identities of the artists and the sources of see the 'fleshingout' of gods and goddesses,
their trainingremainshroudedin obscurity. the 'animation'of gestures, the dramatisa-
From the 1850s, these processes weregiven tion of episodes and the location of scenes
a new institutionalisedthrust and focus, by within plush palaces and luscious land-
the beginningsof Britishart education.The s.capes. The flattened pictorial space ac-
first schools in art in Madras, Calcutta, q,uireddepth and dimension, just as two-
Bombayand Lahore,with theirsystematised dimensional figtires acquired the rounded
courses in drawing, watercolour and oil feel of flesh and muscle. The technique of
painting, modelling, engraving and lithoj- Ilithography,with its scope for shading and
graphybroughtto the forealternativegroups subtle tonal gradations, contributed parti-
of middleclass professionalartists.In them, cutlarlytowardsa three dimensional effect.
the skills of 'copying', accurate draughts- A numberof the art studio 'mytho-pictures'
manshipand illusionistoil paintingacquired also directlygrafted on the model of Euro-
a new refinementand respectability,through pean neo-classicalpainting.The biblicalim-
official training and patronage. The next age of 'pieta' (Madonna and the dead
stages in the induction of 'modern' styles Christ)seemedto haveprovidedthe fonmula
and techniques into indigenous practice for the figureof the greving Savitricradling
wou Id hinge, centrally,onithe choices and Satyavan's body as she pleads for his life
manoe uvresof this newcategoryof 'artists'. before a huge brawnypersonage ;.f Yama.
II The single dramatic shaft of light running
through the dark forest draws on the
I would nc'o suggest three critical stages chiaroscurotechniques of Europeanpaint-
of intferventiora towardstireemergenceof a ing, whilethe ghostlyapparitionsin the dark
new genre of m&ss-produced'Indian' pic- seem reminiscentof scenesof the last iudg-
Econoiriic and Political Weekly October 26, 1991
 ment. Another picturesque forest scenery,
staginU the scene of Nala abandoning
Damayanti in the woods, reveals the art
school trainingin antiquestudy.The Venus-
like image of a half-draped, sleeping
Damayanti,in this picture,is matchedby an
array of images of angels, cherubs and
'oriental cupids' in other mythological
scenes.
Yet, pictures which so clearly emulated
EuMpeanimaery and techniques,assumed
their own local, iconic overtones.The new
'realisticemode lent itself, particularly,to a
kind of humanisationand domesticationof
divnity. The sentimentalised role of a
daughter, transformed into a wife and
mother, was now integrallywoven into the
iconography of Durga. So we have gushingly
emotionadscenes of Durga'swedding, her
home-comingwith her children('Agamani')
and her departurefor her husband'sabode
CBijopa)cast withina set of all too familiar
rituals and tearful SentimentLs.3Alongside,
these picturesalso suggesta markedloosen-
ing and dilution of -'realism: as it was
accommodatedwithin the frameworkof a
populariconography.The slip in standards
is obvious when one contrasts the realistic
finesse and photo-finish of the portrait
prints of DwarakanathTagore or Keshab
Chandra Sen circulated by the same art
studio with the shoddy naturalismand fre-
quentlydispropolhionatefigure drawingof
the tmytho-pictures' In the latter,the rigours
of life study began to clearly take second
place to the tactile glitter of jewellery and
costumes and the grandeurof settings.
Recent studies on painting and cinema
haveopenedup our awarenessof the muta-
tions involvedin the process of the Indian
import of westerntechnology and British
academicart. In the case of the Indianadap-
tation of oil painting, for instance, several
meaningsassociatedwiththe genrewereseen
to havebeen 'drainedout' or 'abbreviated!c
as depthwasoften flattenedout and figures
etained a stiff frontality within the still-
framc.4Realism,in 19thcenturyIndia, was
reducedprimarilyto 'an enablingtechnique',
cutting out many of its broader aesthetic
connotations in Europeanart. It became a
way of bringingto images a surface gloss
and materiality,while working out a form,
and typology that was markedly 'Indian:
notwithstandingtheir 'western'antecedents.
This process,whichhas been analysedin the
paintingsof Raja RaviVarma,'5can also be
seen at work in the earlier pictures of the
Calcutta Art Studio. In these, realism
dissolved itself at many levels to create its
own stereotypesof mythic fantasy. We see
this in the exessive brightnessand gaudiness
of colours;we noticeit also in the emergence
of a set type of technicolour setting for
divine episodes and a kind of idealised
stereotype for the images of goddesses, In
particular.Fair,plumpwomen, bedeckedin
silk and gold jewellery,eyes coyly lowered
or directlyengaging the yiewer,becamethe
centralicons. A typicalexampleis a picture
of Saraswati, where she sits in front of a
Economic and Political Weekly October 26, 1991
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highly fantasised scenery of a stinset sky,
mountainsand a lake filled with swans and
lotuses. Among the first lot of the Calcutta
Art Studioprints,such a picturefulfilledthe
needs of both 'art' and 'iconography. This
very picture of Saraswatiwas selected by
JyotirindranathTagore to appear on the
cover of the first issue of the new literary
journal, Bharati,in 1878.At the same time,
the imageprovideda directlead into the for-
mulation of the 'calendarart' stereotype.
The appearance of titles in three
languages (Bengali, Hindi and English) in
the Calcutta Art Studio 'mytho-pictures'
suggest that they must have been intended
for a cross-regionalpublic,althoughwe have
no certainevidenceof their circulationout-
side Bengal. In Calcutta, during the 1880s
and 90s, the art studio prints had their
follow-upin a new spreadingtrendof book
and magazine illustrations, particularly in
a set of lithographedportraits and scenes
from the Ramayana and Mahabharata
published by one of the first Bengali art
journals, Shilpapushpanjali(1885-86). By
and large,such pictureswerethe productof
art school training. Simultaneously,
lithography,colour printing and illusionist
techniques also permeated the work of
numerouslittle presses,mushroomingin the
peripheries of Bat-tala, which broadly
replicatedthe popular art studio brand of
4mytho-pictures. Staking their claims to
'realism'only in the shadingand 'rounding'
of forms, these gaudy chromolithographs
providevivid examplesof the fantasisedex-
uberameof colour and landscape in such
mythicscenes. Massvisualculturehadcome
to be pervaded by a taste for 'realism. At
multiplelevels, advancesin printingtechni-
ques and trappingsof the westernacademic
style(howevercrudeand unformed)werein-
grainedinto local practicesto dramatically
overhaul the nature of urban commercial
art.
Leaving aside these developments in
Calcutta,the paperidentifiesthe nextcritical
stage of intervention in the career of the
Travancorean artist, Raja Ravi Varma
(1848-1906).The pictorialmodel popularis-
ed by the Calcutta Art Studio, with its in-
terplayof the 'realisticand 'mythice,
of 'high
art' and popular iconography, would receive
a new boost in the pauranic paintings of
Ravi Varma.This phase of the breakcoin-
cided with the course of success in Ravi
Varma'sartistic career-with the artists'
struggle for self-education in European
art techniques; his legendary mastery of
the secrets of academic oil painting,
jealouslyguardedby othercourt paintersof
Travancore;his perfectionof the prizedart
of realisticportraiture,that providedhis first
lucrativesources of patronageand renown;
his branchingout, initially,into genrestudies
of 'Indian' women, and then into subjects
of Hindu mythology.'6 In all this, Ravi
Varma epitomised the evolving of the
'modern'in Indian art. His careerstandsat
a privilegedpoint in Indian art history, at
a heightenedmoment of the conjunctionof
traditionand modernity,'encapsulating',it
has been suggested, "in decades fourcen-
turies of European art history".' It sym-
bolised the point at which the changing
world of indigenous court painting in col-
onial India merged with new trends in
patronage,professionalismand commercial
success. It signified the emergence of the
individual 'artist". with the full status
associated with the term, distinguishing
it clearly from the position of court,
'Company'or 'bazaar'painter.Throughhis
choice of genres,his careeralso signifiedthe
articulationof a conscious 'Indian'identity
in painting, within a changed and moder-
nised stylistic context.
A member of the royal household,
he moved from his ancestral home in
Kilimanoor to the palace of Tavancore
where under the liberal patronage of
Maharaja Ayilyam Thirunal he applied
himself to the perfection of western
academictechniquesof oil painting.Around
him, the presenceof Britishporait painters,
prints of European neo-classical paintings
and the changed tastes of his mentors and
patrons left no doubt that this constituted
the best and most 'improved' form of
representation.At the same time, it is im-
portant to note that Ravi Varma'sdiligent
appropriation of the 'western' style ran
parallel to a traditional education in the
classics of Sanskrit, Malayalam and
Kathakaliliterature It combined with his
own experimentationwith the composition
of Malayalam'shlokas'and more importnt,
with a contemporary thriving trend of
Sanskrit-style'mahakavyas'in Mal m
literature,at the helmof which wasthe sam
lDavancorean aristocracy.Together, these
provided a fertile meeting ground of the
'traditional' and the 'modern' in art.
precipitatingthe redefinition of each. In
Ravi Varma,this mix of choices found its
suprememanifestationin his new genre of
mythological oil painting. Here, academic
techniquesand European'history, painting
conventionswereemployedfuUlscale to the
're-enactment'of an inheritedrepertoireof
Indian'classical'and religiousthemes These
paintings provided the main basis for the
artists' unique eminenceand success in late
19th century India.
Rai Varmabroughtnewdegreesof polish
and prestigeto bearon the existtig genreof
'realistic mythological pictures. More
than the Calcutta Art Studio venture, he
represented a conscious artistic and
nationalistprojectof tappingIndianliterary
and mythic themes and refashioningtheir
representation in the creation of a new
Indian 'high art' form. It was a project
which perfectly dovetailedwith the Orien-
talist and nationalist invocationsof India's
'classical' past and definitions of national
identity in terms of that past. Ravi Varma
seemed to ideally fit the colonial prescrip-
tions for a new, improvedIndian art. In his
speechon 'TheFineArtsof India'(1871),
LordNapier(governorof Madras's)call to
new Indianartists, trainedin European
WS-93
techniques,to ienrich their 'superior' skills
with a true stufring of India'8-her col-
ours, dresses, jewels, religious festivals,
village scenes, not least of all, her
mythology-found a perfect response in
RaviVarma'sartisticoutput. It was thus apt
that one of the artists first mythological
paintings, 'Shakuntala Patra-lekhan'(that
probablyfollowed from the contemporary
spurt in translation of Kalidasa'sepics in
Kerala)should have attracted much atten-
tion in the Madras Fine Arts exhibition of
1876-that it should have been purchased
by the governor of Madras, and found its
way into the frontispiece of Sir Monier
William'smuch-acclaimedEnglish transla-
tion of 14bhijnanaShakuntala."1While it
bolsteredthe Orientalistvision, RaviVarma's
paintingsalso fed into the central concerns
of Indian nationalism. They identified the
'classical'canon in a body of ancient epic
texts,primarilythe Ranayana,Mahabharata
and the literatureof Kalidasa (the poet of
-theGupta 'golden age); they selected from
these 'classics'a particularset of lyric and
romantic themes in keeping with its
aestheticsof 'high art';they located 'culture
and 'tradition'in certain iconic images of
Indian womanhood; most significantly,
thesepaintingsshaped its images of women
and mythic heroines as ideal national
prototypes. Individualised and regionally
placeable,they werestill meant to represent
a pan-Indiantype.
As he shifted from portraits to genre
studiesand mythologicalcompositions,Ran
Varma's fashioning of a new 'national'
iconographywas centrallypremisedon these
feminine images. The woman's image
became the main site on which the artist
(andhis critics)negotiatedand reconstructed
notions of the 'mythic' and 'sacred' of
'tradition' and a new national ethos.
Paticularly enamoured by the neo-classical
paintingsof two FrenchAcademyartistsof
his time, Boulanger and Bouguereau.2
RaviVarmadrewheavilyon their pantheon
of nude Venuses and Psyches and their
allegorical images of Chastity or Charity.
Garbed in elaborate Indian costumes,
and placed within a mythic narrative as
Shakuntala,Damayantior Draupadi,these
images, with the same coy expressionsand
guilefulmannerisms,weretransformedinto
the much-admired'devis'of Hindu legends.
The representationof women must have
posed a criticalchallengein the artists pro-
ject. The challengelay in mediatingimages
that were 'western'in conception and 'life-
like' in appearance, to make them mean-
ingful as 'Indian' mythicand culturalsym-
bols. From the 'life-like'accomplishments
of his portraiture,from his engagingof live
modelsand extensiveuse of photographsof
models, and from the inspirationof Euro-
pean paintings, Ravi Varma went on to
evolve a new iconography of romantic,
classical'nayikas'in Indianart. In thecourse
of this shift, western techniques and neo-
classicalallusions wereintorporatedwithin
a reconstructed'Indian' code of costumes,
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gestures,actionsand feelings.Simultaneous- modationof Sanskritliterarymetaphorsand
ly, the real-lifespecificityof the figuresand descriptionswithouteverdeviatingfromthe
the settingsmergedinto the unfoldingof the naturalistic convtntions of colouring or
mythologicalnarrativeand the evocationof anatomy-drawing.F3 A middle-classcultural
a literary and aesthetic ideal of Indian hegemonywas,clearly,assertingitself, in lae
womanhood. 19th century Bengal, through such evalua-
This processcan be seen at work in some tions of Ravi Vartna'sart. It arguedits case
of Ravi Varma'sbest-knownpaintings. For through the formulation of new aesthetic
instance, in his grand painting of 'Hamsa- codes of 'beauty' and through the projec-
Damayanti' (oil, c 1899),21the figure of tion of a new 'artistic'and 'Indian'sensibility
Damayantiis investedwithall the cognisabli in Ravi Varma'smythological paintings, to
signs of wealth and status, to which the the exclusion of all others. Yet, while a
viewerswould have had immediate access. cultural elite marked out their exclusive
An aristocratic,resplendentlyattired south aesthetic pedigree, these images of Ravi
Indianlady,she is posed against the marble Varma would also have a strong mass
columnsand stairsof a statelymansion.But appeal. The cbmbined core of religious/
the surface presenceof the image acquires mythic/feminine imagery in Ravi Varma's
new underlayersof n*aning by its placement paintingsalso lay at the heartof this appeal.
within the legend of Nala-Damayanti,and The circularflow from 'western'to 'Indian',
its association with the revived Sanskrit fromthe 'real'to the 'iconicein RaviVarinas
'kavya'traditions.Whatcomes into play are imageschartedout the routethroughwhich
other codes and signs-the presenceof the this new 'high art' model passed into mass-
swan-messenger,Damayanti'stitled stance art and became a potentially saleable
and pensive expression-which transform formula.
her into an ideal of the romantic nayika, This brings us to the third decisive stage
transporting her from her immediate en- of interventionin the birth of the 'calendar
vironment to the world of the epics. A art' genrein India. Here,we encounterRavi
similar metamorphosis occurs in Ravi Varma's strategic double-manoeuvre-his
Varma's images of Kalidasa's love-lorn one decisivemove in bridgingthe dividebet-
heroine, Shakuntala, as she appears as a ween 'high' and 'bazaar' art, whereby his
voluptousflesh-and-bloodwoman, wrapped rerining of a new Indian 'high art' genre
in romanticdreamsor glancing back at her expandedinto a parallelproject of refining
lover,Dushyantaunderthe pretextof picking the tastes of the masses. This came about
a thorn from her feet.22 In the latter in- with his setting up an oleography press on
stance, this verygesture-the twist and turn the outskirtsof Bombay in 189.2,wherewith
of headand body-draws the viewerinto the local German collaboration, he began the
narrative,inviting one to place this scene mass-productionof his mythologicalpgint-
within an imaginedsequenceof imagesand ings. Ts move,too, was a partof the artists
events. On its own, the painting stands like induction of 'modern' techniques and
a frozen tableau (like a still from a moving technologies. Ravi Varma's career was
film), plucked out of an on-running spec- distinguished, not merely by his choice of
tacleof episodes.Thesepaintingsalso eflect a newmediumand genrebut also by his new
the centralityof the 'male gazes in defining channels of success and publicity. The
the feminine image. Though absent from the prestigiouschain of British fine art exhibi-
pictorial frame, the male lover forms a tions and the networkof Britishand Indian
pivotalpoint of reference;his gaze transfrxes patrons provided one major channel. The
Shakuntala, as also Damayanti, into other was opened up by the new improving
'desired'images, castingthem as lyricaland prospectsof colour-reproductionand mass-
sensual ideals. In turn, these metamor- duplicationof paintings.The artist'soption
phosised images of 'classical'heroinespro- towardsHindu mythologicalthemeshad, in
vided the Indian elite-the maharajaswho a sense,alreadywighted the directionof his
commissionedlargenumbersof these pain- success towards the mass-market.He had
tings from the artist-with a favoured been convincedabout the potentialmassap-
substitute for European oils and marble peal of his pauanic paintings during the
statues, with their own independent genre brief public viewing of some of these pic-
of 'high art. turesin Bombayin 1891en routeto the royal
In the 1890s, as prints of Ravi Varma's collection of Baroda; It appears that hun-
paintings found their way into some dredsof photographsof these paintingshad
exclusive Bengali journals, a new body of been sold then.24The pressureof commis-
criticsemphaticallymarkedtheir difference sions for his mythologicalpaintingsand the
from other 'debased'types of mythological frequent demands among patrons for
pictures on the market highlighting their duplicates of pictures must have naturally
contrast with the Calcutta Art Studio led the artistto considerthe prospectsof col-
'mvtho-pictures'. The differencewas located our reproductions. It was one of Ravi
at two levels-in the greater'realist'refine- Varma'smost influentialpateQns,the Dewan
mentand feasibilityof RaviVanma'simages; of Travancore, SirT MadhavaRao,who sug-
and equally in their far greater ability to gested that the artist'spopularmytholoical
convey the lyrical emotions and ideals of paintings to be sent to Europe to be
classical Sanskrit literature.Ravi Varma's oleographed-both to extendhis reputation
masterywas said to lie in this perfectblend and to serve a national cause.25 Ravi
of the 'real'and the 'aesthetic:in his accom- Varma,too, apparentlywished to 'improve'
Economic and Political Weekly October 26, 1991
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
popular-tastes
by providingen alternativeto
the existing range of 'atrocious' engravings
of Hinpu gods and goddesses on the
market.26Bombay and Poona, a centre of
this trade in religious pictures, was chosen
as the best venue for his intervention.
Earlier in 1890, a Bengali oil painter,
BamapadaBanerjee, who had also moved
into the same genre of mythological pain-
tings, had had his paintingsoleographedin
Germanyand circulatedin Calcutta.But the
Ravi Varmaventureturned out to be more
consequential and lasting in its impact.
Enteringa partnershipwith a Bombay in-
dustrialist,GovardhandasKhatauMakhanji
and enlisting the services of-four German
technicians, the Ravi Varma picture press
was begunat Girgaumin 1892.The project,
all along, had about it the halo of a
nationalistventure RaviVarma'sreputation
broughtit the active supportand patronage
of nationalist leaders like Naoroji, Ranade
and Gokhale in Bombayand Surendranath
Banerjee in Calcutta. That the artist also
took it up with as much seriousness and
dedication as his royal commissions is evi-
dent from a second tour of India he u'nder-
took in 1894, in searchof 'authentic, pan-
Indiancostumes,motifs and settingsfor his
pauranicpictures.27A new lot of paintings
followed from the tour, intended almost
purely for reprodtction by the press. Yet,
paradoxically,the very project of m,ass-
production,for all its patrioticand 'improv-
ing' intentions, invdved its.own logic of
debasement.Itbr9ught about an inevitable
slide in quality and a standardisationof
formf that is inscribedinto the verydefini-
tion of mass-art.The shift from portraiture
to mythologicalpaintingshad involvedone
level of mediationof 'western'conventions
and 'realistic'images.The move from oil to
oleographyinvolved many more dilutions
and short-cuts.The techniqueof oleography,
using oil-based paint as printing medium,
servedideally to capturethe gloss and illu-
sionismof oil painting,while reducingthese
to mere surface-value.As the artist began
churningout paintings specifically for the
press, figures, costumes and settings were
increasinglycast withina set formula.There
were instanceswherethe artist would only
paint the central image, with his brother,
Raja RajaVarmaor other helpers filling in
suitable backdropsand other accessories.?8
This erosion of individualityat the level of
the original productionset in deeperas the
single work passed into multiple colour
prints, the style coarsening through con-
tinuous duplication. Figures, of women in
particular,came to repeat the same naive
mannerisms of expressions and postures;
loud colours and dazzlingcostumes, pasted
around three-dimensional bodies, sub-
stituted depth and detail for surface gloss;
a new crop of picturesof deities, Lakshmi,
Saraswati or Ganapati, where a token
naturalism co-existed with many super-
naturalexcessesof coloursand backgrounds,
markedthe clearest transitionto iconic im-
ages.29 Both in style and in the range of
Economic and Political Weekly October 26, 1991
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pictures-pictures of deities and mytho-
logical episodes, portraits of national heroes
and nationalist leaders (Shivaji, Tilak,
Ranade) and studies of women-Ravi
Varma'soleographsset the precedentsof the
modern 'calendar-art'trade. They laid the
groundworkof a pictorialgenre that was to
be easily standardisedin oleograph prints,
piratedin multiple, distorted versions, and
replicatedby other art school-trainedartists
of Bombayand Calcutta. As its images got
vulgarisedand diffused, these Ravi Varma
oleographs now providedthe foil to a new
nationalist code of 'high art' and 'aesthetic
refinement'.Initially, new half-tone block
printsof Ravi Varma'spaintings, produced
by the printing firm of U Ray in Calcutta
around 1901-02 for the Bengali journal,
Prabasi, were screened off from these
'bazaar' oleographs of the artist, to be
treatedas 'worksof art' ratherthan religious
pictures.Then, increasinglyin Bengal,all of
Ravi Varma's paintings came to be dis-
credited by nationalist critics in their
discoveryof an alternativemore authentic
'Indian'style and sensibilityin the paintings
of AbanindranathTagoreand his following.
The ascendancyof the new 'national art' of
Abanindranath'sgroup rested centrallyon
the dismissal and displacement of Ravi
Varma'swork as 'kitsch'.-"
The Ravi Varmapress, itself, turned out
to be short-lived, its many financial and
administrativedifficulties compounded by
the outbreakof plague and the political in-
stability of Bombay. Transferringpartner-
ship and its venue to Malavli-Lonavla,the
presswas eventuallysold off, in 1901,to one
of the Germantechnicians,Schleizer,along
with a copyright of reproductionof 89 of
Ravi Varma'spaintings. While it continued
reproductionof RaviVarma'spaintingswith
improvedcolour, the Malavli-Lonavla'pic-
ture depot' sparked off a proliferationof
oleographypressesin westernIndia.In these,
Ravi Varma'sname, like his widely-pirated
images and his model of pauranicpictures,
functionedas the main trademarksfor sale
Wehavethe exampleof a certainChitrashala
Steam Press in Poona, which in the firsi
decadesof the 20th centurywas one among
many such pressesmakinga lucrativetrade
out of piratededitionsof RaviVarma'spain-
tings and a similar brandof 'calendar'pic-
tures." Prints of the artist's work, issued
from the 'parent'centreat Malavli-Lonavla,
themselves showed loud exaggerations of
colour and abbreviationsof the representa-
tional and narrative intricacies of the
original oil painting. Such pictures
exemplified the shift from 'high art' to
popular iconography-the transformation
of the prime, most coveted Indian artist of
his time into a widelytradedbrandname of
mass-art. By the early 20th century, we find
iri operation a kind of cross-regional all-
India trade in such 'realistic'mythological
pictures,where a set stock of images were
reeyeledwith minor variations, where the preserversof age-old customs and rituals,
line of appropriationand xcxhange could be as embodimentsof religiosityand virtue,as
extended from Calcutta to Bombay and upholders of domestic order and stability,
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Poona.Wehaveinstancesof images(likeone
of Durga in the role of 'Annapurna')first
evolved by the Calcutta Art Studio in the
1880s reappearing,in the 1920s, as a more
garish and colourful oleograph Wofthe
Malavli-Lonavla Picture Depot. Through
such transmissions and replications, the
parametersof the 'calendar art' genre and
trade now came to be clearly defined.
III
Takingup the broadlystandardisedreper-
toire of oleographed images, which by the
early 20th century marked a new mass-art
formula, I will now eplore some of the ways
in which this body of 'realistic imagery
lent themselves towards a new dominant
iconography. This is where I focus speci-
fically on the use and importance of gender
in these pictures in the construction of
'icons': icons, whose religious or mytho-
logical allusions were closely complemented
by an encirclingcorpusof social and cultural
ideologies.The allegoricaluses of the fenale
form in a wide range of western imagery
providesan interestingparallel. Studying a
multifaceted body of feminine represnta-
tions, from classical Greek and Christian
mythand its pantheonof goddesses,through
the medievalpersonifications of virtues to
modern-day public monuments like the
Statue of Liberty or the idealised figurines
of Justice and the Republic on the Paris
streets, a recent book probes the central issue
of the divergence between such 'symbolic
and 'actual' orders in society.32 And it
argues that it is the very recognition of this
difference and divergence that empowers
these representations and makes the female
figure an ideal vehicle for allegory: for con-
veying meanings far beyond its immediate
presence.
In the new urban art forms of modern
India, the woman's form had undergone a
striking metamorphosis, posing a new con-
figuration of the 'modern' and 'traditional'
While its form was 'modernised: the con-
cepts and ideals it signified always harked
back to 'tradition'-to Hindu mythology,
Sanskrit literature, regional customs or
Indian values and ethics. The idtervention
of western models and representational
techniques, and the mediation of-indigenous
cultural or iconographic references, had
jointly shaped this new visual image. Its
passagefrom exclusive oil paintings to cheap
mass-produced prints brought many trans-
mutations, but also gave it the fixity of a
ready-made formula. Over the late 19th and
early 20th century, such pictorial represen-
tations of women coincided with a new
powerful set of equations made by na-
tionalist discourse between 'tradirion' and
'femininity between the 'nation' and the
mother-goddess.33 In fightingthe onslaught
of colonialism, women were designated their
special roles in the nationalist project-as
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as nurturing mothers, faithful wives and
devoted daughters, all sustaining the male
in his public services to the motherland.
They were also deified, in literatureand
nationalist writing, as the inspirational
figureof Bharat-Mata,rousingher 'sons' to
patriotic action. Despite their 'reform'and
'emancipation' in modern India, women
were never meant to lose the primal
innocence or the pristive purity of these
roles. They were educated, modernised,
broughtinto publiclife and politicalactivity,
all within certain defined codes of a new
model of womanhood.Their subjectivity-
their actual struggles and identities-
continuously recededbefore their idealised
symbolic presence Drawingon Orientalist
formulationson India, Indian nationalism
constructeda set of polarities between the
publicand the private, the materialand the
spiritual,the home and the world, through
which it demarcatedits alternativesphereof
power and autonomy. All these polarities
werepremisedon this privilegedideal of In-
dian womanhood.34Like the painted im-
age, the ideal passed on from the exclusive
terrain of art, literature and nationalist
thought into popular consumption leaving
its firm imprint on social values and at-
titudes. The pictures of women lodged
themselves at the centre of this spreading
ideology,reinforcingit and in turnreinforced
by it. While they forfeitedthe special aura
surroundingthe single, 'work of art the
multiple mass-producedimages of women
thrived on the more open and continuous
exchangeof meaningsand significations in
society."
From the Calcutta Art Studio 'mytho-
pictures' to Ravi Varma'spaintings and
oleographs and their many contemporary
equivalents (like the pictures circulated
by Bamapada- Banerjee in Calcutta or
M V Dhurandharin Bombay), the female
figure had emerged as the centre-piece.
Whetheras goddesses,mythicalheroinesor
social models of ideal mothers and wives,
the figurewas realisedwith brushand paint
into real-lifecredibility.Yet, simultaneous-
ly, it wasalso rendered'iconic'throughsome
ritualised gestures and roles, and through
overlapping layers of religious, aesthetic,
social or nationalist evaluations.The pro-
cess has been termedas one of 'resacralisa-
tion: where the rise of modernity,instead
of separating the secular from the sacred,
draw the two into a new synthesis.36There
was a continuousinterchangeof the religious
and secular,the mythicand real(later,of the
'dharmic'and 'filmi') in the way the images
of women were presentedand their mean-
ings generated across a wide spectrum of
patrons and consumers. Here, the contem-
porisationof the 'past'in thesemythological
pictures-the dramatisation of select
episodesfrom ancientlegendswiththe kinds
of costumes and settings that were part of
both the artists and viewerscontemporary
experience-was of critical importance.
Thus, Savitri in the Calcutta Art Studio
lithographl,or the Shakuntalas,Damayantis
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or Draupadisin RaviVarma'spaintingsap-
peared like tangible 'real' women, in
much the same way as the Lakshmis and
Saraswatis in today's 'calendar' pictures
assumethe faces of Hema Malinior Sridevi.
Flesh and blood heroines, blown up on
screen and on street hoardings, are ap-
propriated as calendar icons in ordinary
homes and shops, their sexuality sanctified
by the guise of the divine. In these pictures,
as in the RaviVarmagerre of pauranicpain-
tings, such impersonationsserve to convert
beauty or glamour itself into a 'sign',signi-
fying the legendary and the mythical. The
prizedattributeof realwomen, 'beauty'also
becomes synonymous with 'tradition'and
marks the passage from the actual to the
ideal. Wesee this in the aura that surround-
ed RaviVarma'spaintingsof women in his
perfected technique of academic oil pain-
ting. As his reputationspread,the story got
around in Trivandrumthat if one went to
the artist's studio one could see 'real-life
celestial nymphs.7 The pictorial image, as
it whetted male sexual fantasies, also grew
into a literary ideal. Thus, Subhadra, the
heroineof C V RamanPillai'sfamousnovel,
Marthonda Varma, -is described by the
author to be as beautiful as a Ravi Varma
painting.
In their range of women's images, Ravi
Varma'spaintings moved between the two
spectrumsof the aristocratic/romantic,on
one hand,and the sensual/coquettish,on the
other.Acrossthe poles, the surfacetrappings
of the image-be it the markingsof wealth,
status and aristocraticpedigree,or those of
seduction and sensuality-came to be
mediatedby deeper literaryand mythic af-
filiations, or by allusions to broadersocial
and nationalist ideals. Branchingout from
portraiture,the artists' initial success rested
on his ethnic studies of women, leading on
to the more spectacular success of his
mythological paintings. The shift from
figurestudiesto pauraniccompositionshow
the transmission of the same representa-
tional formula and its gathering of multi-
ple meanings.Takentogether,RaviVarma's
images of women fulfilled various ends.
They figured as the core emblems of
classicism and tradition in the artists'
reconstruction of a 'classical' past in his
mythologicalpaintings;they embodied the
supreme romantic emotions of love, long-
ing, separationand bereavementwithinthis
rescripted'classical'canon; t hey also stood
as models of certain socially-constructed
'feminine'values, like motherhood, fidelity,
self-sacrifice or religosity.
A closer look at a selection of the artists'
paintings, ranging from individualised
studiesto mythiccharacter-types,revealsthe
circularflow of differentmeanings and the
accretion of layersof significations. Let us
begin with a type of paintingof aristocratic,
traditionalMalayaliladies which won Ravi
Varmahis first awardsin the Britishfine art
exhibitions.They carriedtitles like 'A Nair
Lady at Toilet'or jUSt, 'A N4alabarLady93
where a serene-looking woman, with the
Economic and Political Weekly
traditional white gold-edged Kerala.saree,
gold ornamentsand flower-deckedcoiffure,
sits playingthe veena amidst plush curtains
and carpets. Drawn from the artists' own
familiarsocial circles,thesewomenwerepro-
jected both as specific 'reional models and
as ideal Indian types. The mark of the
individual sitter gets subtly effaced, as the
'Malabar Lady' (in her frontal gaze and
pose, with herwhites,gold and veena)stands
as Saraswatiincarnate-or as an abstracted
emblemof purity,chastity,cultureand tradi-
tion. With their pronounced 'ethnographic'
appeal to the west, this trend of painting
reachedits apogee in the ten paintings Ravi
Varma displayed at the Chicago Inter-
national Exhibitionof 1892, each of which
featuredwomenas the centralsymbolof the
ethnic variety and diversity of the Indian
peoples. A similar progressionfrom the in-
dividual to the generalis more sharplyevi-
dent in another typical ethnic study of
a Malayali mother and child by Ravi
Varma.39Here, the models were the artists'
own daughterand grandson.Once again,the
affluent householdsetting,the splendourof
the woman's sari and ornaments, and her
graceand bearingsaturatethe paintingwith
signs of wealth, status,and tradition. In ad-
dition, the attachment of a title like 'Here
Comes Father'(the idea of such titles must
have come from similar cloying domestic
scenesthat aboundedinVictorian painting)
weaves an imaginary narrative around the
picture and fixes the meaning of the
woman's image within it. The painting
freezesthe expressionsand gesturesaround
the weighted emotional moment of, hus-
band and father's return home. And the
woman becomes the social role-model of a
loving mother and a dutiful wife; she also
standsas the visual personificationof tradi-
tion in a relatively westernisedhome
As Ravi Varma moved to mythological
compositions, the narrativesthat suggested
themselves around the woman's image
assumed a greater specificity and the
pedigree of Indian 'classical' takes. The
choice of themes and episodes, again,
repeatedlyinvokeda male presence(seen or
unseen) in constructing a romantic and
desirablefeminine image. The male patron
or viewerof the paintingwas invitedto step
into the mythicnarrative,fill in the presence
and appropriatethe image and ideal for his
own. We have seen this process at work in
paintings like 'Hamsa-Damayanti' 'or
'Shakuntalalooks backs at Dushyanta'.We
can pick another interestingexample in one
more Shakuntala painting of Ravi Varma,
in whichshe sits alone dreamingof herlover,
the singleblown-upfigurecast againsta dry
rockylandscapefilling the frame.40Thereis
a transition,here, to a more overtly sensual
portrayalof the female figure, even as the
image is clearlyinvestedwith a mythiciden-
tity. Ravi Varma'spauranicpaintings came
to be filled with such sensual, often crossly
eroticrepresentationsof women. The reclin-
ing and cavorting nudes of contemporary
European nw-classical paintings entered
October 26, 1991
RaviVarma'scompositions through a side- erotic fullness of the figures and provided This samedual patternof a suggestion
door, their modesty retained by a smatter- the viewer with a privileged access to that andsublimation alsolayat the
of sensuality
ing of clothing,their'Indianness'established eroticismin the imaginedspace of mythand baseof a typeof women'spictures,which
by the new roles they took on from the legend. now emergedas a populargenr in itself.
Ramayana, Mahabharataor the Sanskrit Yet, there was also a counter-processat Once again, it was Ravi Varma who, in his
epics. It seemed that were was an inverse work in such transposition of myth into large oils painted for rich patronsand
relationship between the mythic and the reality.In the rangeof pictbaresundersurvey, displayedat fine art exhibitionsandin his
erotic in these paintingsof Ravi Varma-as I would argue that female sensuality (the oleogaphprintsforthemasses,definedthe
if ancient myths and legends provided the seductiveappeal of 'fleshed out' bodies of mainparameters of thisgenre.Throughhis
artist the licence to indulge in a sensual 'devis'and nayikas), while it formeda vital work,studiesof women(withthesheerfact
display of women'sbodies, while the erotic marketable ingredient of the new icono- of womanhood projectedas a q ntial
image itself found a social and divine cover. graphy,was constantlybeing underscoredby value)emergedas a favoureditemof both
So, we havefrom the artist'sbrusha cheap- a set of other references.At different levels, 'high art' and popular representations.
ly eroticisedimageof a bare-breasted women this workedtowardsthe constitutionof 'real- Alongsidethe repertoire of goddessesand
with a suckling child, reified, first, as a life' images of women into 'icons'. towards classicalheroinesin thesepictures,theidea
'maternal'image, and then as a divine im- transmutingthe materialised female form of Indianfemininitywas,itself,construed
age of Yashodhaand Krishna.4 Where a into ideals. Thus, the graceful, aristocratic intoa visualand socialicon.Thisinvolved
genteelbejeweiledMalayalilady,posingwith ladiesof RaviVarma'spaintingwereoffered a consciousand pointedset of differentia-
her child, initially featured in this divine on displayto the spectator/owner,but care- tions. On the one hand,softly eroticised,
role42 later, in the artist's work, a more fully held back within the rarifiedworld of theseimagesof womenwere,on the other
crudely titillating image of a suckling richhomes,dreamforestsand lepicesettings. hand,consciouslysanitisedfromthestigma
mothercould be sold as a visual formulafor Similarly,comedy, semi-nudewomen, while of the'common' and vulgar,of the'degrad-
the same personage Such pictures vividly they enteredthe viewer,wereglossed over by ed' and'westernised'. Theywer clearlyset
reflect the mode of functioning, analysed by a veneerof the domestic or divine. This is apart,forinstance,fromthe brazenshrw
Carlo Ginzburg,,of imagesboth sacredand particularlyevidentin RaviVarma'slargeset and courtesansof Kalighatpainting,from
erotic in 16th century European painting. of paintings of romantic mythological theexoticbibisandnautch-girls of colonial
The effect on the viewers was two-fold: "'a pairs-Nala-Damayanti, Arjuna-Subhadra, painting,andequallyfromthe pantheonof
tulrningupwardby meansof an exaltedcode Shantanu-Satyavati,etc,45-where women EuropeanVenuses,Danaesor Susannas.
such as the mythological", and a turning figured purely as objects of male desir A Eachof thesedifferentiationsundarined the
back from the imagined world of the legend plump dolled-up Subhadra wards off social and cultural pedigree of the new
to the erotic act and the direct sensual Arjuna's amorous advances, in a direct woman'simageandmadeit a repository of
experience43 previewof a 'filmi' scene in the woods, just thenewrespectable and'nationalist'values
This leads us to the one obvious and as a coy Satyavatistands half-nude in the of the risingmiddleclass.Acrossa variety
primaryaspect of the kinds of images, we water,wooed by Shantanu.And, in a sinilar of cultural forms, across the different
are studying-namely, their projection of vein of pictures circulated by Bamapada pictorialgenresof academicoils and the
women as sexpal objects. This genre of Banerjee,Uttaragazes ardentlyinto the eyes reconstructed 'Indian-styleof the Bengal
representation,handeddown fromoil pain- of her departing husband, Abhimanyu, school,thefemalefigurewasbeingprivileg-
tings so glossy colour prints, now placed while a coquettish Urvashi flutters her ed as the main signifier of 'culture', 'tradi-
women's bodies on display and subjected eyelashes at Arjuna.46As in a number of, tion' and 'nation' It was the mainmotif
them to a controlling 'male gaze' (of both European allegorical paintings, the act of aroundwhich a middleclass nationalist
artistand viewer).The mannerin whichthis male voyeurismwas legitimisedin these pic- cultureconstitutedits identityandsenseof
was achieved was unique to this pictorial tures by directly incorporating the erotic autonomy.Around it was invokedthe
style and to the consumersociety, in which experience within the religious and metaphorof a sacred,innerprivatespace
it nourished. The 'commodification' of mythologicalnarrative.A classic exampleof thathadto be preserved fromviolationor
women in todav'smass media-in calendar such 'legitimisedvoyeurism'in Europeanart westerncontamination. Aroundit wasalso
pictures,advertisements or hoardings- is an is provided by the theme of a bathing shapedthe flourishingpoliticalsymbolof
all-too-familiar problem. As John Berger Susanna spied on by the elders: a subject the motherland.All these signirications,
argues,suchobjectificationof womenin the takenup with relishby artists from the 16th interchangeable and mutuallyreinforcing,
viual artshad its rootsin Europeanoil pain- to the 18thcenturies "as an opportunityto gatheredaround a body of stereotyped
ting and its principal, privileged genre of display the female nude... with the added of womenin popularprints.
representations
nude studies.The nudein Europeanart pro- advantagethat the nudes eroticappealcould The political iconographyof Mother
vides some of the main "criteriaand con- be heightened by the presence of two India produceda wide, variedsweepof
ventions by which women have been seen lecherousold men, whoseinclusionwasboth imagery,whichmerita separate,detailed
and judgedas sights".' In the Indianscene, iconographically justified and porno- analysis-from goddesseslike Durgaand
the arrival of academic realism and illu- graphicallyeffective".47Representationsof Jagaddhatrifeaturingas 'Bharatvarsha,4'
sionist oil painting techniques had (as we Susannaand the Eldersare also telling pro- to moregeneraldeifiedfiguresof 'Bharat-
hae seen) radicallyenhancedthe visibility of of the way a biblical theme that upheld mata'appearingin the 1920sand 30s,sur-
and credibilityof the painted object: this female chastity was convertedin the hands rounded bycameosof nationalheroesorim-
gave the art-form its crucial edge over of male pointers into "a celebrationof sex- agesof 'prosperity'and 'progress'(charka,
existing pictorial genres and made for its ual opportunity".RaviVarma'spauranicpic- harvestingcrops, railways. and bridges),49
dominant, pervasiveappeal. In the realmof turesshow manysimilarinstancesof 'chaste' wejumpinto the 1970sto a largespateof
mass-production,the glossy oleograph,like heroinesand innocent beauties exposed to 'calendar'images of Indira Ganidhias
the latercolour photograph,servedmost ef- male voyeurismin mythicepisodes. So, we MotherIndia.At the turnof the century,
fectively to replicatethe tactile aura of oil have scenes of Nala abandoninga sleeping however,RaviVarma's paintingsandoleo-
painting,to play upon the spectator/buyers' Damayantiin the forest,half undressingher graphscontributedmoretowardsa social
sense of acquiringthe real thing which the to cover himselr with her saree; Indrajit iconography of Indianwomanhood.Here,
image shoe. It opened up for a mass paradinga captive nude 'apsara'modelled imagesof womenweretypecastinto their
clientele a novel mode of entering and on an antique cast of Venus,at the court of roles as 'ideal' mothersand wives, and
possessingthe pictoralimage.Whereimages Ravana;or Ravana,himself,clutchingon to frozeninto certainritualisedactionsand
of women were concerned, this placed a a flimsily-drapedabducted Sita, while he moods- like tendinghome and children,
special premium on the physicality and fights iatayul. performingpujas, going to a temple,

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donating alms, playing the sitar, adorning
themselves in a typical 'feminine' act of
vanity, or simply self-engrossed in day
dreamsand pensive reflection. Variouspic-
tures of Ravi Varmacome to mind. In his
famous painting, called 'The Galaxy (of
musicians)'50painted for the Mysore royal
family and later widely circulated as an
oleograph,we see the artist'sconscious use
of differentregionalfemininetypes in evok-
ing a pan-Indian ethos. Composed like a
group photograph, the picture sets on
display a kind of modern fashion show
pageant of women musicians and regional
apparels. The painting has aptly been
described as "a perfect anthropological
vignte" of II orientalwomenin "thegrand
historical project of a united India'!51The
inward,inter-lockingglances of the women.
sealing them off from the spectator'sgaze,
contin the in the imagined,rarifiedspace
of the 'nation'. Less overtly nationalistic,
other women's images by Ravi Varma-like
'Lady in Moonlight: 'Lady Giving Alms at
the Temple', 'Lady at Ball Game (where she
seductively lets her sari slip to reveal her
bare torso) or 'Lady with Mirror' lend
themselves more directly to the iconic
stereotype. Initially titled 'Nair Lady at
Toilet'52 'Lady with Mirror' has on view a
lady combining out her tresses before a
mirror in a familiar household setting."
Her regionalidentity becomes secondaryto
her act of self-adornmentand vanity, and
to the more generalisedaura of femininity
surroundingher. The feminine form, in its
sensual fullness, is clearly on display, here.
Yet such images of 'middle class' women
weredifferentiatedfromthose of their'com-
mon' peasant counterparts, whose bodies
were more openly exposed-as with Ravi
Varma'spainting of 'The Reaper' women,
whose barebreastsdirectlysignifiedher low
social status.54
A combinationof sensualityand 'middle'
cla' pedigreecame to characterisethe large
outpour of studies of 'pretty women' that
issued from the Ravi Varmapress. As with
the paintingsof aristocraticMalayaliladies,
these pictures also invoked moods of
quietitude,reflectionand self-indulgement,
unencumberedby work and duty. Pictures,
carrying titles like 'Reverie' depicted the
archetypalmiddleclass women, both seduc-
tive and suitably domestic, spied on
unawareness in the privatespace of her room
as she sits day-dreaming.The bourgeoisat-
tributeof leisurebecomes critical in sifting
out a feminineimagethatis both genteeland
sensual, whose romantic/erotic appeal is
mediatedby class and status. Such pictures
became one of the main and most popular
outputs of the Ravi Varmapicture depot.
Theirtitlesclassifiedthemas classicalseduc-
tive types like 'Mohini' or 'Urvashi' or
romanticmood-embodimentslike 'Reveriet,
'Nostalgia' or 'Music'.Passing from 'high
art' to mass consumer items like the
oleograph (and later films and adver-
tisements),these imagesof women fulfilled
the multiplefunctions of seduction, passive
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self-display,romantic inspiration, or con-
jugal and maternal role models. They
became the staple of the modern mass-
media. Like the mass art-form itself,
womanliness,constructedand preservedas
an 'icon' wassubjectedto the same processes
of homogenisationand continuous replica-
tion. In this process, in turn, lay embedded
the 'naturalisation'of the constructand the
stultification of gender roics.
Notes
[Anearliercondensedversionof thispaperwas
presentedwithslidesat the IndianAssociation
for Women'sStudiesConferencein Calcuttain
1991,in the sectionon Mass-Media,andit has
benefitedconsiderably fromthecommentsthat
came up then.]
I An importantcollectionof essayson this
themein Indiahas beeneditedby Kamala
Bhasin and Bina Agarwal, Womenand
Media: Analysis, Alternatives and Action
(Kali for Women,New Delhi, 1984).
2 PatriciaUberoi, 'FeminineIdentity and
NationalEthos in IndianCalendarArt',
Economic and Political Weekly, April 28,
1990.
3 See for example, Veena Das, 'The
MythologicalFilmand Its Frameworkof
Meaning: An Analysis of Jai SantoshiMa',
India International Quarterly, special issue
on Indian Popular Cinema, 8(1), 1981;
Geeta Kapur,'MythicMaterialin Indian
Cinema',Journalof Arts andIdeas, 14-15,
1987,whichoffersan interpretation of two
films, Sant Tukaram (Damle/Fattelal,
Marathi, 1936) and Devi (Satyajit Ray,
Bengali, 1960) to contrast a popular
iconographic modewitha laterexorcisation
of mythologisedreality;Ravi Vasudevan,
'Stylisationof Sorrow India Magazine,
specialanniversary issueon popularHindi
cinema, Vol 11, December 1990, which
analysesthe roleof genderin the ritualisa-
tion of the melodramaticmode in Hindi
films of the 1960s.
4 Uberoi'sarticle, op cit, also derinesthe
typicalstyle, genreand rangeof pictures
that are suggestedby the currentlabelof
'calendar'pictures:pictureswhichmayor
may not havean actualcalendarattached
to them,whichwidelycirculateas popular
wall-hangings, postersandadvertisements.
5 The processhas been analysedregarding
the beginnings of Indian cinema with
DadasahebPhalkeand its pre-historyin
the phenomenonof Ravi Varma.Ashish
Rajadhyaksha,'The PhalkeEra, Conflict
of TraditionalForm and ModernTech-
nology'.Journalof Arts and Ideas, 14-15,
1982.
6 As Geeta Kapur defines it in 'Mythic
Materialin IndianCinema'op cit, p 82, the
term 'iconic' can be taken "to mean an
imageinto whichsymbolicmeaningscon-
vergeand in whichmoreovertheyachieve
stasis. An iconic imageaccordingto this
functionaldefinitionmay or may not be
mythologicalor religious,but it does sug-
gest an iconographic process wherein
morphology-a dynamic principle of
aesthetics-takeson thegravityof thesym-
bolic and thus groundsitself in a given
tradition"
Economic and Political Weekly October 26, 1991
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
7 Elsewhere, I have studied this at greater
length. Tapati Guha Thakurta, 'Artisans,
Artists and Mass Picture Production in late
Nineteenth and early iwentieth Century
Calcutta: The Changing Iconography of
Popular Prints' South Asia Resewrch,Vl 8,
No 1, May 1988.
8 That aesthetics, itself is a discipline with a
social history is powerfully argued by Jane
WoIffin Aeshetics and the Socioogy of Art
(London, George Allen and Unwin, 1983).
9 While the different themes and regional
varieties of 'Company' painting have been
studied by the Archers-see for e g, W G
and M Archer, Indian Painting for the
British, 1775-1880 (Oxford, 1955) or
M Archer,1ompany Paintings in the India
Office Library (London, 1972)-there is
need for a closer survey of the forms and
changes, as well as the production network
of such pictures.
10 We have an euample in the first indigenous
lithogmphy enterprise in Calcutta, The
Royal Lithographic Press, set up by some
ex-students of the School of Art in 1857,
which specalised in 'relistic portraitprints
of personalities like Rammohun Roy.
11 The initial discovery of such oil paintings
in private family holdings in Chusura and
Chandannagar led them to be curiously
labelled as "Dutch Bengal School" and
"French Bengal SchooMl' A pioneering
study of these pictures was made by Jaya
Appasamy, 'Early Oil Painting in Bengal',
Lalit Kala ContempoPary, 32, April 1985.
Now known to have been produced in
various parts of 'native' Calcutta and its
neighbourh'ood, these imythological oil
paintings have recently become 'collector's
items' for museums and individual buyers.
12 Advertisements of the Calcutta Art
Studio-Bengalee, November 8, 1879,
August 5, 1882. The work and history of
this press was brought to light by Kamal
Sarkar, in an exhibition of its work he
organised in Calcutta in 1978 and a paper
he presented on the occasion, Calcutta Art
Studio-r Chitrakola. Collected by English
Christian missionaries as specimens of
Hindu 'heathen' pictures, the Calcutta Art
Studio prints found their way, through this
circuitousroute, into the Victoriaand Albert
Museum, London and the Ashmolean
Museum, Oxford. Some samples are also
in the collection of the Indian Museum and
Victoria Memorial, Calcutta.
13 Here, one must note the special emotional
significance that attached itself to the
iconography of Durga and the celebration
of the Sharadiya Durga Puja in Bengali
culture,whose roots certainlygo back to the
latter half of the 19th century. The puja
came to associate itself with a daughter's
coming home from her husband's place,
and the ritualof the immersion of the deity,
with her return.
14 Ashish Rajadhyaksha, 'The Phalke Era:
op cit, pp 53-57.
15 Geeta Kapur,'Ravi Varma:Representational
Dilemmas of a Nineteenth Century Indian
Painter: Journal of Arts and Ideas, Special
issue on 'Representationin History' Nos 17,
18, 1989.
are
16 Details of Raja Ravi Varma'scareLer
availablein BalakrishnaNayar,RajaRavi
 Varma(1rivandrum,1953),a Malayalam 31 Some of these pirated prints were brought
biogmphybasedon diaries,letters,etc, in
the family collection, and conversations
with surviving family members; E M J 32 Marina Warner,Monuments and Maidens,
Venniyoor, Raja Ravi Varma (Kerala
Government,1981);lTpatiGuhaThakurta,
'Westernisationand Traditionin South 33 This theme has been explored in a large
IndianPaintingin the NineteenthCentury:
The Case of RajaRaviVarma',Studiesin
History, 2(2), 1986.
17 Uberoi, 'FeminineIdentityand National
Ethos: oi5cit.
18 Lord Napier, The Fine Arts of India, a
speech delivered at Native Christian
LiterarySocietyof Madras(Madras,1871).
19 Sir MonierWilliams,Sakoontala or The
Lost Ring (Sth edition, London, 1887).
20 GustaveBoulanger(1824-48)and Wiliam
Adolphe Bouguereau (18251905) were
among the prominentFrench Academy
paintersof their time, holdingtheir sway
over the salous and the art market. The
mounting of a vast Bouguereau exhibition
in Paris during 1984-85 showed a revivalof
interst in the West in the work of such
forgotten academy painters.
21 Collection: Sri Chitra Art Gallery,
Trivandrum.
22 Shakuntala (oil, c 1898), Natoinal Art
Ciallery,Madras. Shakuntala Looks &tck-
at Dlushvanta (oil, c 1898), Sri Cho(raArt
Gallery,Trivandrum.
23 InCalcutta,in the 1890s,the mostpowerful
exponentof this argumentwas Balendra-
nath Tagore,throughhis articles in the
Bengalijournal,Sadhana.See, his essays,
'RaviVarma'and 'Hindudeb-debirchitra'
in Chitrao Kavya(Calcutta,1894).
24 Venniyoor,op cit, pp 29-30.
25 LetterfromSirT MadhavaRaoto theartist,
18%4, quotedin BalakrishnaNayar,op cit,
p 93.
26 Reminiscencesof the artist's son, Rama
Varma in BalakrishnaNayar, op cit,
pp 122-23.
27 Thefirstof thesetourshadbeenundertaken
in 1888,alongwithhisbrother,C RajaRaja
Varma,as a partof theTravancorean royal
entourage,out of whichemergedthemotifs
andcostumesforthe 14pauranicpaintings
hepaintedforthenewLakshn*VilasPalace
of Baroda.
28 Some of the Ravi Varma pictures which
were reproducedin the Bengalijournal,
Prabasi,carriednotesmentiqningthatthe
backdropwas paintedby his brother.
29 A selection of early oleographs from the
Ravi Varma Picture Depot at Malavli-
Lonavia have been collected in the archives
of the art history department of the M S
University of Baroda.
30 I discuss this in a paper called 'Orientalism,
Nationalism and the Reconstruction of
'Indian' Art in Calcutta at the Turn of the
Century' which was presentedat a seminar
on 'Perceptions of India's Past, American
Institute of Indian Studies, Varanasi,
December 1989, which is now being
published in a volume to be edited by
Thomas Metcalf and Catherine Asher. A
more extended discussion of the theme is
therein myforthcoming book. The Making
of a New Indian' Art: Artists, Aesthetics
and Nationalism in Bengal, e 1850-1920
(CambridgeUJniversity
Press).
Economic and Political Weekly October 26, 1991
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Harisn TheDarkAnge4Aspectsof Vic-
out as a booklet, Raja Ravi Varma torianSexaity (ndon, Fontana/Colins
(Chitrashala Steam Press, Poona, 1911). 1979)on the treatnent of nudes in Vitorian
paintingas a projectionof the male ego,
The Allegory of the Female Form (London, with a case study of the allegoricalpain-
Picador, 1985). tings of FredericLeighton.
45 (Oils, c 1888), Maharja Fateh Singh
body of recent writing-for, e g, Ashis Museum'frust, Baroda.
Nandy, The Intimate Enemy: Loss and 46 These oils and eleographsof Bamapada
Recovery of Self under Colonialism (Delhi, Banerjeearein the VictoriaMemorialand
Oxford University Press, 1983): Jasodliara IndianMuseum,Calcutta.
Bagchi, 'Positivism and Nationalism, 47 MaryD Garard, 'Artemisiaand Susanna'
Womanhood and Crisis in Nationalist Fic- in NormaBrondeandMaryD Garard,ed,
tion, Bankimchandra's Anandamath', FeminismandArt HistoryQuestioningthe
E;conomicand Political Weekly,October 26, Litany(New Ybrk,Harperand Row,1982),
1985; Tanika Sarkar, 'Nationalist pp 149-50.The article.arguesthat one of
lconography: Image of Women in 19th the fewhandlingsof thethemebya woman
Century Bengali Literatue, Economic and artist, Artemisia Gentileschi marked a
Political Weekly,November 21, 1987; Uma in the
criticaldifferencein representation,
Chakravarti, 'Whatever Happened to the way the emphasis shifted to Susanna's
Vedic Dasi? Orientalism, Nationalism and anguishand plight.
a Script for the Past' in Kumkum Sangari 48 These pictures appeard on the cover of the
and Sudesh Vaid, ed, Recasting Women, Bengali journal, Bharatbarsha begun in
Essys in Colonial History (New Delhi, Kali Calcutta in 1913, and are said to have sold
for Women, 1989). separately as prints from the Rharatbarsha
34 This is the central argument of Partha office.
Chatterjee'sessay, 'The Nationalist Resolu- 49 The Bombay artist, ex-student and teacher
tion of the Women'sQuestion' in Recasting of Sir J J School of Art, M V Dhumndhar,
Women,Eissaysin Colonial History, op cit. was producing such oleograph prints of
35 This loss and replacement of 'auras' is 'Bharatmata'in the 1930s,along with im-
brilliantly analysed by Walter Benjamin, agesof Yashoda,the cowherdKrishnaand
'The Workof Art in the Age of Mechanical charioteeringIndrathatappearedon calen-
Reproduction' in Illuminations (London, darsas advertisementsfor Nestleand Ler
Fontana/Collins, 1973). Brothersproducts.In 1983,these pictures
36 Uberoi, 'Feminine Identity and National wereseen in the collection of the artist's
Ethos', op cit. daughter,AmbikaDhurandhar, in Bombay.
37 Veninyoor, op cit, p 12. 50 (Oil, c 1903),Sri Jayachamarajendra Art
38 (Oil, c 1899), Sri Jayachamarajendra Art Gallery,JagmohanPalace,Mysore
Gallery, Jagmohan Palace, Mysore. 51 Geeta Kapur, 'Ravi Varma', op cit,p 73.
39 'Here Comes Father' (Oil, 1893), Kowdiar 52 (Oil,c 1873),NationalArtGallery,Madras.
Palace, Trivandrum. The first of the artist'swork to win the
40 Shakuntala (Oil, 1898), National Art Governor's Gold Medalat the MadrasFine
Gallery, Madras. Arts Society Exhibitionof 1873.
41 (Oil, c 1898), Sri Jayachamarajendra Art 53 Her act of vanity,of looking at herselfin
Gallery Uagmohan Palace, Mysore. a mirror,could be seento performanother
42 Yashoda and Krishna (Oil, nd), Private function:it made "the womanconvivein
Collection, Madras. treatingherself as, first and foremost,a
43 Carlo Ginzburg, 'Titian, Ovid and Sixteenth sight" (John Berger,op cit, p 51).
Century Codes for Erotic Illustration' in 54 This differentiation had its pointed
Clues, Myths and the Historical Method relevancein the MalayaliSociety of Ravi
(John Hopkins, 1989). Varma'stime, where the woman's right to
44 John Berger, Waysof Seeing (London, BBC cover was still largely an upper-caste
and Penguin Books. Also see, Fraser privilege.
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