Mangala Bayi Thampuratti (1865–1954), known as Mangala Bayi, was an artist from

Kerala Kerala ( , ) is a States and union territories of India, state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, whose portraits depicted primarily domestic and devotional themes in everyday life in

Travancore The kingdom of Travancore (), also known as the kingdom of Thiruvithamkoor () or later as Travancore State, was a kingdom that lasted from until 1949. It was ruled by the Travancore Royal Family from Padmanabhapuram, and later Thiruvanan ...

. She belonged to the

Travancore royal family The Travancore royal family was the ruling house of the Kingdom of Travancore. They signed a treaty with the British in 1788, thereby adopting British dominance. Later, in 1805, they revised the treaty, leading to a diminution of royal authorit ...

, and her brother,

Raja Ravi Verma Raja Ravi Varma () (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. Especially, he was notable f ...

, was also a renowned Indian painter.

Life

Mangala Bayi was born into the

in Kerala, India, in the erstwhile princely state of

Career

Mangala Bayi's uncle, Raja Raja Varma, 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. Raja Raja Varma trained Mangala Bayi and her brothers,

Raja Ravi Varma Raja Ravi Varma () (29 April 1848 – 2 October 1906) was an Indian painter and artist. His works are one of the best examples of the fusion of European academic art with a purely Indian sensibility and iconography. Especially, he was notable f ...

, and C. Raja Raja Varma, in Western techniques and styles of painting, particularly in portraiture. Mangala Bayi demonstrated a particular talent for portraiture, and a painting of her brother, Raja Ravi Varma, is still on display in the Sree Chitra Art Gallery in

Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...

. 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. 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 Varma by the former ruler of

Gaekwar Gaekwads (also spelled as Gaikwads, Guicowars, Gaekwars) (IAST: ''Gāyakavāḍa''), a Hindu Maratha dynasty of the former Maratha Empire and its subsequent (erstwhile) princely state of Baroda in western India from the early 18th century until ...

, spending a year to create fourteen painted illustrations of Hindu deities

Radha Radha (, ), also called Radhika, is a Hindu goddess and the chief consort of the god Krishna. She is the goddess of love, tenderness, compassion, and devotion. In scriptures, Radha is mentioned as the avatar of Lakshmi and also as the Prak� ...

and

Krishna Krishna (; Sanskrit language, Sanskrit: कृष्ण, ) is a major deity in Hinduism. He is worshipped as the eighth avatar of Vishnu and also as the Supreme God (Hinduism), Supreme God in his own right. He is the god of protection, c ...

, which would hang in the Durbar Hall of then newly constructed

Lakshmi Vilas Palace The Lakshmi Vilas Palace ( Gujarati: લક્ષ્મી વિલાસ મહેલ) in Vadodara, Gujarat, India, was constructed in 1890 by the Gaekwad family, a prominent Maratha family, who ruled the Baroda State. Major Charles Mant wa ...

Vadodara Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is a city situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district. The city is named for its abundance of banyan ...

. 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 Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

, which is part of the collection in the Government Women's College in Thiruvananthapuram. Most of her remaining works survive in private collections. Details of Mangala Bayi's professional and personal life are accessible through her conversations with Balakrishna Nair, who wrote an autobiography of

for which he interviewed members of his family. 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 Varma occasionally sought her opinion on his paintings, and how she, in turn, sought comments on her work when her brothers permitted her to speak. 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.

References

{{Authority control Travancore royal family Artists from Thiruvananthapuram Indian royalty 19th-century Indian painters 19th-century Indian women artists Indian portrait painters Indian portrait artists 1865 births 1954 deaths Indian women painters Painters from British India 19th-century women painters