BENGALURU: When Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bayi of Travancore ascended to power in 1924, as regent to her nephew, Maharaja Sree Chithira Thirunal, she took the reigns of a kingdom with a social order characterised by rigid caste divisions and entrenched tradition. These norms perpetuated centuries-old inequalities and injustices – so much so, that a few decades earlier, following his visit to the region, Swami Vivekananda had likened it to a ‘lunatic asylum’.
Yet, her seven-year-long reign as regent was so influential that it significantly altered the kingdom’s trajectory. She instituted progressive reforms across education, healthcare, and infrastructure, and played a crucial role in the abolishment of several oppressive social customs, such as the prevention of temple access to marginalised communities.
Commemorating Raja Ravi Varma’s 176th birth anniversary, the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation is presenting an exhibition showcasing the life and times of the Maharani titled Daughter of Providence. It features a never-before-seen portrait of Sethu Lakshmi Bayi as a three-year-old by her grandfather, Ravi Varma, alongside a series of photographs that explore the former’s life – from early childhood to her reign, and her later years in Bengaluru.
“The portrait itself is the highlight. But then we realised that the character depicted in it itself was such a compelling historical figure. Although the painting was made around 1898, she lived until 1985. It’s a huge span of life, where she was born as the artist’s granddaughter, became a princess, then a ruling queen, was marginalised in the royal family, left the palace, and died a completely different person leading a completely different life in a bungalow,” says writer Manu Pillai, whose first non-fiction book The Ivory Throne, chronicled Sethu Lakshmi Bayi’s reign. He further adds,
“At one point in her life, she ruled over millions of people; at another, she was just an ordinary granny living in the Garden City. It’s a life almost cinematic in its scope. That painting encapsulates it. What we’ve done is use the photographs to construct the narrative around it, chronologically building up her early life, her teenage and youthful years, her reign as queen, and her years in old age, etc.”
Ravi Varma’s portrait stands out for capturing more than just her physical appearance as a three-year-old. “The painting is a rare sort of artwork. It has not been seen anywhere before and was created by Raja Ravi Varma not for just any granddaughter, but for one he knew was destined to be a Maharani in the future. He had foreseen that. He used to paint for many princes at courts. He knew that although she appeared to be just a three-year-old child, she was actually a political figure.
In a sense, he’s commemorating that,” Pillai says, adding, “If you look closely at the painting, there is a certain intensity to her eyes. That’s a cultivated thing; he’s giving her a kind of aura because he’s enshrining her future as the Queen. This painting has always been in the royal family’s collection; this is the first time it’s being displayed in public. And you don’t usually find intimate paintings like this that are done by Ravi Varma. He’s done portraits of a few babies, a few small princes or other royal families; in the same context that he’s done this one as well. That’s the setting in which the painting was made; it passed through the family over a period of time. Here we have it finally, on display, with the trademarks of quality, all the usual ingredients of a good Ravi Varma portrait.”
(Daughter of Providence is on display at Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation, Maini Sadan, Lavelle Road till May 30 between 10am and 6pm. For more details, visit rrvhfoundation.com)
