Friday, March 12, 2021

Mangala Bayi

Naushervan: page created for WP:WIRED's March 2021 event on Art+Activism




'''Mangala Bayi Thampuratti''' (1865-1954), known as Mangala Bayi, was an artist from [[Kerala]], [[India]], whose portraits depicted primarily domestic and devotional themes in everyday life in [[Travancore]]. She belonged to the [[Travancore royal family]], and her brother, [[Raja Ravi Varma|Raja Ravi Verma]], was a renowned Indian painter.

== Life ==
Mangala Bayi was born into the [[Travancore royal family]] in Kerala, India, in the erstwhile princely state of [[Travancore]].<ref name=":0">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref name=":1">Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref name=":2"></ref>

== Career ==
Mangala Bayi's uncle, Raja Raja Verma, and her aunts, Rohininal Thampuratty and Moolamnal Kunjikāvu, were among the first to adopt art as a profession within the Travancore royal family, training with British artists.<ref name=":2" /> Raja Raja Verma trained Mangala Bayi and her brothers, [[Raja Ravi Varma]], and [[C. Raja Raja Varma|C. Raja Raja Verma]], in Western techniques and styles of painting, particularly in portraiture.<ref name=":0" /> Mangala Bayi demonstrated a particular talent for portraiture, and a painting of her brother, Raja Ravi Verma, is still on display in the [[Sree Chitra Art Gallery]] in [[Thiruvananthapuram]].<ref name=":0" />

Unlike her brother, Mangala Bayi's ability to work professionally in the field of art was constrained by social customs governing the conduct of women.<ref name=":0" /> She worked on some private paintings, but primarily assisted her brothers in painting commissions that were given to them, as social mores restricted her from painting professionally. In particular, Mangala Bayi worked on a commission given to Raja Ravi Verma by the former ruler of [[Gaekwar State|Gaekwar]], spending a year to create fourteen painted illustrations of Hindu deities [[Radha]] and [[Krishna]], which would hang in the Durbar Hall of then newly-constructed [[Laxmi Vilas Palace, Vadodara|Lakshmi Vilas Palace]] at [[Vadodara]].<ref name=":2" /> Among her surviving independent paintings is a work titled, ''Charity'', which depicts a woman giving food to an impoverished person, as well as a portrait of [[Mahatma Gandhi]], which is part of the collection in the Government Women's College in Thiruvananthapuram.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":1" /> Most of her remaining works survive in private collections.<ref name=":1" />

Details of Mangala Bayi's professional and personal life are accessible through her conversations with Balakrishna Nair, who wrote an autobiography of [[Raja Ravi Varma|Raja Ravi Verma]] for which he interviewed members of his family.<ref name=":1" /> In Nair's book, Mangala Bayi describes how her relationship and ability to work with her brothers was constrained after her marriage, as social customs limited her contact with her brothers. She describes how Raja Ravi Verma occasionally sought her opinion on his paintings, and in turn, sought comments on her work when they permitted her to speak.<ref name=":1" /> Mangala Bayi continued to paint until the age of 84, working primarily in oils. Her work has been praised for her skill in creating realistic depictions of the human form, as well as for her personal, intimate choice of subjects and composition.<ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref><ref>Liquid error: wrong number of arguments (given 1, expected 2)</ref>

== References ==

[[Category:Travancore royal family]]
[[Category:People from Thiruvananthapuram]]
[[Category:Indian royalty]]
[[Category:Indian artists]]
[[Category:Indian women artists]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian artists]]
[[Category:19th-century Indian women artists]]
[[Category:Indian portrait painters]]
[[Category:Indian portrait artists]]


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