Portraits of the benevolent Maharajah and Ranis of Vizag

While words have the ability to trigger a human’s imagination, giving him a deep insight and an imaginative picture of historical events, there is nothing like a captivating piece of artwork. From accurately representing hard-fought battles to replicating the images of kings and queens, art epitomises the glory of the bygone era of royals. John Castellas, a Vizag heritage enthusiast and aficionado, writes a detailed account of how artist Sharmila Karri crafted remarkable portraits of the generous Maharajah and Ranis of the city.

The Last Maharajah of Vizagapatam, Sir Goday Narayan Gajapathi Rao, his Maharani and two daughters, the eventual Ranis of Wadhwan and Kurupam, left a legacy of benevolence to the population of Vizag in the form of schools and education for all the youth, hospitals and dispensaries for health care, public buildings, choultries, water supply, roads and social services for the poor and needy.

The Ranis of the family lived their married lives in purdah. However, as young women, they moved freely in society and mixed comfortably with the European population of those times. Given a private education through an English Governess, each was fluent in English, Telugu and Sanskrit. They were part of the Madras social scene where the Maharajah of Vizag was a Member of the Legislative Council. The elder sister married the Thakore Sahib of Wadhwan in 1884 and became the Rani of Wadhwan. The younger sister married the Rajah of Kurupam in 1898 and became the Rani of Kurupam. This womenfolk left no photographs of their married years, but recent discoveries in European archives provide vintage images of the Ranis as young women.

When the Rani of Kurupam passed away in 1901, the Rajah commissioned the celebrated Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma to paint her portrait from an old photograph. A similar historic series of four portraits have recently been painted by local Vizag artist Sharmila Karri from archive photographs. These original oil-on-canvas portraits are 20 inches (500 mm) in diameter and suitable for richly framed display.

For the portrait of the last Maharajah of Vizagapatam, artist Sharmila Karri has cloaked Maharajah Sir Goday Gajapathi Rao in a royal purple. The gold trimmings were inspired by the Zardozi embroidery that was on an old family saree in Sharmila’s family. The portrait is of the middle-aged Rajah who was yet to be recognised as a Maharajah and awarded a knighthood. With research, the insignia of his knighthood as Knight Commander of the Indian Empire (KCIE) awarded by Queen Victoria was identified and is positioned around his neck and chest.

Maharani Lady Chitty Janakiyamma was the third wife of the last Maharajah. She was the adopted daughter of his sister and her husband. She was also the stepmother to Maharajah’s two daughters, the Ranis of Wadhwan and Kurupam. Her portrait is based on an image obtained from a Catholic magazine praising her charity towards building schools, especially the new St Aloysius School buildings. Sharmila has chosen a rich crimson saree draped in conventional South Indian style with traditional jewellery for this portrait. Maharanipetta is named after this Maharani as she funded the building of the roads to and from this new locality in the early 1900s.

The Rani of Wadhwan, a young unmarried Kumari Gajapathi Rao, was introduced to the future King Edward VII when he visited Madras as part of his India tour as the Prince of Wales in 1875. She wrote him a note and enclosed a photograph that was used to paint this portrait. Sharmila draws on Goday family jewellery that was worn for the studio photograph and was later used for the famous Ravi Varma painting of her sister the Rani of Kurupam. Research shows that the noblewomen of that era preferred sea pearls to freshwater pearls. Sharmila has looked at her own Kuchipudi jewellery of past years for accurate detail of the portrait hair ornaments.

The portrait of the Rani of Kurupam relies on the discovery of her statue in a little know museum in Paris. In 1902, the Rajah commissioned a marble effigy of the Rani to be housed under the canopy of the Kurupam monument in Vizag. A renowned French sculptor, Charles Desvergnes, produced the marble statue and it has not been seen or heard of until it appeared in a catalogue in 1912. Today, a two-and-a-half foot (78 cm) plaster model of the statue is on display as ‘La Ranee’ at The Desvergnes Museum in Bellegarde-du-Loiret.

Sharmila Karri’s portrait of the Rani of Kurupam did not have a photograph to rely on. Instead, it is inspired by the long-lost statue and the famous Ravi Varma painting. For the earrings of the era, the artist was inspired by a photograph of the exquisite Karanphul Jhumka jewellery of the 1870s, courtesy of Mayank Kumari Deo, of period jewellery that the Rajah of Jeypore, Ramchandra Deo III, had gifted to Englands’ King Edward VII. The fashion of the day was also to carry a hand-fan and rich peacock feather colours are depicted for this accessory.

Sharmila Karri belongs to the city of Vizag. She is a self-taught professional artist who has participated in about a dozen group exhibitions all over India as well as internationally. She has been a finalist at the Taipei Art Fair and has been featured in exhibitions held by the Bombay Art Society and Jehangir Art Gallery. Sharmila’s work has also been publicly exhibited in Visakhapatnam. Her work is often characterised by detailed attention given to poignant emotions and hidden stories of the subject on the canvas. Figurative painting always captivated her. While depicting human figures on canvas, she incorporates delicate emotions and the charm of colours into her paintings. She dabbles with all kinds of mediums, oils being her favourite. She doesn’t usually restrain herself to one single theme or thread of thought but explores different genres, textures, mediums and techniques, capturing myriad moods.

Watermarks on the images of the portraits of the Maharajah and Ranis of Vizag are intended until the public unveils them and reveals the mystery of the lost Kurupam statue which will feature in a heritage presentation on the Lost Treasures of Vizagapatam that the author plans for later this year.

Should you have an anecdote or history on Vizag, the author would appreciate you contacting him at jcastell@ozemail.com.au

Written by John Castellas whose family belonged to Vizag for 5 generations. Educated at St Aloysius, migrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1966, former General Manager of Engineering at Boeing & Qantas Airways, in retirement Lecturers in Aviation Management at Swinburne University and is a Vizag aficionado.

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