Daughter of Providence

DAUGHTER OF PROVIDENCE

DAUGHTER OF PROVIDENCE

In 2024, the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation unveiled Daughter of Providence, an exhibition that intertwined the artistic legacy of Raja Ravi Varma with the dynamic life of his granddaughter, Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bai, chronicling the times of Travancore’s last reigning monarch from

The Ancient Sculptures: India, Egypt, Assyria, Greece, Rome exhibition at Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) was a landmark event

glimpse into the royal archives of the Travancore Collection.

together a global understanding of the ancient historical past. The project was initiated and supported in collaboration with the J. Paul Getty Museum, British Museum, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and various museums in India.

unexhibited oil painting by Raja Ravi Varma, a treasured piece from

and Rome, the exhibition challenged the Eurocentric divide between “East” and

Varaha or boar in Indian mythic tradition was a standout object in the exhibition, creating a narrative of an important tradition of zoomorphic depictions of deities in antiquarian cultures. Similarly, Ancient Sculptures showcased a 3,000-year-old Sekhmet sculpture from Egypt depicting the female deity with a lion-head.

granddaughter, portrayed Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bai as a three-year-old child. The exhibition was meticulously curated by the Foundation with in- depth historical research contributed by Dr. Manu S. Pillai, a distinguished historian of late medieval India. Complementing the central exhibit, was a series of photographs outlining Sethu Lakshmi Bai’s life from her early years to her reign and her later years as a civilian of independent India. Daughter of Providence highlighted the Maharani’s reforms in healthcare, education and social integration in the transformative years of a nascent nation which earned her admiration from contemporaries like Mahatma Gandhi and

The exhibition resisted a geographic or chronological split, instead curated the

by Sethu Lakshmi Bai’s granddaughter, Rukmini Varma, who also chairs the Raja Ravi Varma Heritage Foundation.

of nature in our lives, the divine form, and ideas and paradigms of beauty, that resonated with a contemporary audience fostering greater connection with an

statues digitally.

Through this thoughtfully curated

unique and enriching opportunity to

art, history, and enduring legacy.

Daughter of Providence was beyond a mere display of Raja Ravi Varma’s artistic brilliance. It stood as a profound tribute to the life of Maharani Sethu Lakshmi Bai,

a period of immense change.

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