Beyond Palaces and Pomp

Immortalizing a literary work which juxtaposes art and history, culminating in the creation of a masterpiece is no easy task. But a historian of Manu S. Pillai’s caliber has achieved this on a monumental scale in False Allies: India’s Maharajahs in the Age of Ravi Varma.

Pillai describes the travels of the painter Ravi Varma through five princely states. He demonstrates how these maharajas, far from being frivolous despots consumed by lust and luxury, were involved in industrialization, potentates who funded nationalists and even engaged in good governance. They maintained a pragmatic, sometimes even highly assertive, bordering on confrontational relationship with the British.

Credit must be given to the very pivotal role played by the Dewans of several of these monarchs in states such as Travancore, Pudukottai, and Baroda in spearheading very far-reaching and impressive reforms in these states. Stalwarts such as T. Madhava Rao and Seshiah Sastri made improvements in education, legislation, public works, medicine, public health, agriculture, and were instrumental in clearing the public debts of these states. The Dewans had the onerous task of reconciling the power and supervision of the British with the genuine requirements of the states and modernizing them in a way so as not to offend the caste and religious sentiments of the people and the kings.

The author begins with a description of the rulers of Travancore: Uthram Tirunal (brother of the famed Swathi Tirunal) was an anglophile—well versed in European customs, literature and a fond collector of European art.

Ravi Varma, who flourished for a long time in Travancore, came from a family hailing from a village called Kilimanoor which had, for generations supplied husbands to the kingdom’s matrilineal princesses. “The great Martanda Varma, the founder of Travancore, was the issue of this alliance.”

The aristocratic painter flourished in the Travancore court under Uthram Tirunal, and his elder son Ayilyam Tirunal. However, due to a feud between Ayilyam and his younger brother Vishakham, when Vishakham acceded the throne in 1880, Ravi Varma was obliged to leave the palace to take up an assignment in Pudukkottai state.

Baroda was a state whose adopted ruler Sayaji Rao not only effectively governed the kingdom, but supported the abolition of the caste system, the emergent nationalist movement, and the diversion of resources to orphanages, boarding houses for backward caste children and scholarships (in the latter he was guided by Jotirao Phule). B. R. Ambedkar’s studies were thus supported by the Baroda government. Sayaji Rao’s vision for a reformed Hindu society found expression even in Ravi Varma’s art.

Mention is made of how in Mysore where Ravi Varma spent some time, most of the rulers carried out a non-confrontational, balancing act with the British. The latter had taken over the economic and political bureaucracy of the state in the late 19th century due to gross mismanagement by Krishnaraja Wadiyar III. Apart from strict control by the British, a program of large-scale industrialization of the state was carried out. All this not only drained the state exchequer, it also diverted funds from the rural areas of Mysore to the privileged urban areas.

Lastly, the author chronicles the sojourn of the painter in Udaipur, capital of Mewar. Fateh Singh, ruler of Udaipur, locked horns with the British due to his policies of resisting modernization, ignoring instructions from his colonial superiors, and to rule autocratically despite this approach creating unending problems.

Pillai’s descriptions of the princes, their consorts, their progeny and powerful palace courtiers are deeply penetrating. Added to the vivid, spellbinding literary portrayal of these characters are pictures of them painted by the celebrated Ravi Varma. Further, by focusing on the portraits and their significance, both from the aesthetic and human angle, the writer literally brings these personages and details of their existence to life.

The book is redolent with anecdotes, palace intrigues, and examples of interference by the British on various occasions in the states described. On numerous occasions, through the British Resident in the state, the Dewan and the Viceroy of India, and the help of a certain section of the palace coterie (in many cases the ranis or women who were the mothers to the heirs of the throne) political, economic and legislative matters were transformed and controlled to suit the needs of the colonial power.

Pillai’s palette in creating this book is akin to that of Ravi Varma’s while painting his compositions: themes which take on hues of various kinds—hues that are interesting, mesmerizing, sophisticated and extremely absorbing.

(The writer is a Mumbai based educator.)