THE BIRTH OF SHAKUNTALA  – RAJA RAVI VARMA

This rare and beautiful Oleograph of Maharishi Vishwamitra and Menaka with baby Shakuntala is of one of Raja Ravi Varma’s paintings. Famously known as ‘The Birth of Shakuntala’, it was the first picture printed at Ravi Varma’s press. It was Raja Ravi Varma who started painting Hindu deities with appropriate bodies, features and ornaments. This particular picture shows enraged Vishwamitra unwilling to accept baby Shakuntala, born of Menaka. Sage Viswamitra was engaged in a great meditation to gain absolute power over Earth and Heaven. Lord Indra, who ruled over heaven got worried about his throne if Vishwamitra was to successfully complete his meditation. To break his tapas, Indra sent the most beautiful Apsara (nymph) from heaven – Menaka to lure Viswamitra off his penance. Menaka through various efforts was successful in breaking Viswamitra’s meditation. They were married and had a baby called Shakuntala. Menaka left for heaven and Viswamitra left for forests after handing over baby Shakuntala to the sage Kanva in a forest ashrama.

Oleography or Chromolithography is a unique technique used for making colour prints. This particular technique evolved from Lithography – which is basically a method of printing using a stone.

The method of Oleography uses multiple stones - a separate stone for each colour and included printing one colour over another. It was widely used for commercial purposes and was the most popular method for colour printing till the end of the 19th century. Oleo in Latin means Oil. This technique used oil that gave the prints better quality. It is a chemical process based on rejection of oil by water. Depending on the number of colours present in the picture, skilled workers took months to complete a single Oleograph.  In the 19th century, Oleographs became so popular in the United States that the Era was named as ‘Chromo Civilisation’. They were widely used everywhere – children’s books, advertising art, posters, labels etc.

While Oleographs started losing their popularity by the end of the 19th century in the West, they started becoming popular in India. This can be completely attributed to India’s first modern artist, Raja Ravi Varma. To make Oleographs of his paintings in large number so as to make them accessible to the common people as well, he opened a press in Mumbai – The Ravi Varma Lithographic Press. This press produced a large number of Oleographs of Raja Ravi Varma’s most famous paintings, before being sold to his German printing technician.