Shailaja Lakshminarasimhan showing her father Kadambi Rangamani’s first painting of Lord Venkateswara in Indian ink, at her Lakshmipuram residence in Kuppam.
| Photo Credit: A.D. Rangarajan
A work of art transcends time, and so does the artist, who lives on forever in his creation. Artists take to different genres and try myriad colours to bring to life their subjects of creation. But Kadambi Rangamani was a class apart, for he used the brush and palette only to paint the image of Lord Venkateswara and His consort Goddess Padmavati, till his last breath.
Hailing from a middle class family, Rangamani had initially tried odd jobs at Malleswaram in Bengaluru in the late fifties. Later, he had to soldier on as he entered wedlock with T.V. Mythili, a distant relative of former Governor-General C. Rajagopalachari, of Lakshmipuram village in Kuppam.
It was in 1963 he had taken a vow to draw 10,000 portraits of the ‘divine couple’. Many had then expressed scepticism over the number, ridiculed him for his ‘wild estimate’ and prophesied that his vow would fall flat.
Undaunted, Rangamani started his first solo portrait of Lord Venkateswara using Indian ink, and when it drew laurels, continued to paint more. After distributing a few painting to the poor devotees, he started charging for the ink and sheet later.
To ensure longer life, he started drawing on hard board sheets using oil paints. With black paint providing the background, multiple hues were used to elevate the image of Lord Venkateswara, as seen in the sanctum sanctorum at Tirumala.
Intending to slash the budget for maintaining his wafer-thin income source, Rangamani traced back his roots and migrated to Chittoor town, where he continued painting as his profession, even after crossing the 10,000-figure, and till his demise in the year 2000.
“After taking bath, my father used to perform puja before starting painting. After completion, he used to perform ‘sahasranama archana’ to the image before giving it away,” his elder daughter Shailaja Lakshminarasimhan told The Hindu.
Rangamani’s cherished first painting in Indian ink still dots the wall at her Kuppam residence.
What started as a form of obeisance turned into a full-fledged profession for Rangamani, and ‘Venkateswara art’ soon became his surname. In order not to lose track of the count, he depicted the number at the bottom of the portrait, till he touched the 10,000-mark.
One such huge painting dots the wall of Raghava Theatre in Chittoor, belonging to former TDP MP NP. Jhansi Lakshmi, which was formally inaugurated by none other than former Chief Minister N.T. Rama Rao during his visit in the late eighties.
“NTR expressed awe at the mammoth size and quality of the painting, and enquired about Rangamani,” recalls the late MP’s husband N.P. Veeraraghavulu Naidu. Another such huge image can be seen at Pratap Theatre in Tirupati.
Interestingly, Rangamani’s father K. Rajagopala Ayyangar had served as the Correspondent for The Hindu in Chittoor. His grandfather. Diwan Bahadur K. Rangachari, had presided over the botanical section of the Indian Science Congress in Bangalore in 1917.
Several of his paintings were gifted away to celebrities, film personalities and classical musicians, which can be seen adorning the walls and ‘puja rooms’ across Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu today.
