라자 라비 바르마

Varma trained in oil painting under a British portraitist in the princely state of Travancore, and he used that very European technique, modeled light, correct anatomy, real depth, to paint something no European painter would: Saraswati, Lakshmi, and scenes from the Mahabharata and Ramayana, with gods and goddesses given the faces and poses of real sitters.

In 1894 he set up his own lithographic press near Mumbai, specifically so that these paintings could be reproduced cheaply as oleographs and sold to ordinary households rather than kept as originals for princely patrons. It worked on a scale almost no fine artist manages: his prints of Lakshmi and Saraswati were bought by the thousands and are still, in copies and imitations, close to how most people in India picture those deities in their minds today.

He died in 1906, two years after Viceroy Lord Curzon awarded him the Kaisar-i-Hind gold medal on the British king-emperor's behalf, one of the first Indian painters to receive that award.