A lithograph print of a painting by the Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma and the Ravi Varma Press, circa 1904, showing Adi Shankara at its focal point, dressed in red, surrounded by his four principal disciples. The composition illustrates his founding of four monastic centers, or mathas, across India to preserve and transmit Advaita Vedanta philosophy. Held today in the Hemamalini and Ganesh Shivaswamy collection at the Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation, Bengaluru, India.
Facts
Subject Matter
Devotional FunctionThe Ravi Varma Press was a pioneer of mass-produced chromolithography in India, and prints like this one were made specifically to be affordable enough for ordinary households to place before a home shrine; the press is widely credited with standardizing what a given religious figure looked like in Hindu popular devotion far beyond what temple sculpture or manuscript painting alone could reach. 1 Physical Form
MediumLithograph, Raja Ravi Varma and the Ravi Varma Press, circa 1904, Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation (Hemamalini and Ganesh Shivaswamy collection) 1 Classification
Object TypePrint (Engraving, Etching, Woodcut or Lithograph) 1 Medium (class) Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source Adi Shankaracharya (Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation, via Google Arts and Culture)
Derived: this work depicts a figure already recorded as belonging to this tradition; the work-to-tradition link is inferred from that live depicts edge and the figures own attested tradition affiliation, not independently sourced beyond it.
Depicts
The painting's directly named and focal subject per the holding foundation's own record, shown teaching his four principal disciples, matching Wikipedia's independent use of the same image as its own portrait of him.
Source Adi Shankaracharya (Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation, via Google Arts and Culture)
Additional Source Adi Shankara (Wikipedia)
In the Other Atlases
Authored By
Also in Arts and Music Atlas: the author of this subject.
Sources
1. Adi Shankaracharya (Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation, via Google Arts and Culture)
Ganesh Shivaswamy FoundationGoogle Arts and Culture asset caption, Ganesh Shivaswamy Foundation, Raja Ravi Varma, circa 1904
ADI SHANKARACHARYA is the central figure in this print. He is attired with a red shawl and is surrounded by his four disciples.
catalogue record, medium/object-type description
A lithograph print of a painting by the Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma and the Ravi Varma Press, circa 1904, showing Adi Shankara at its focal point, dressed in red, surrounded by his four principal disciples.
View the Source Wikipedia, "Raja Ravi Varma"
Wikipedia contributors, WikipediaIn Group: Ravi Varma Press Oleograph, own entity-description: "a painting by the Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma and the Ravi Varma Press"View the Source Adi Shankara (Wikipedia)
WikipediaDepicts: Adi ShankaraQuote, Depicts: Adi Shankara
Painting of Adi Shankara, exponent of Advaita Vedanta with his disciples by Raja Ravi Varma.
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