Damerla Rama Rao

Damerla Rama Rao was a painter of Rajahmundry in the early 20th century.¹² He died young, in 1925, but writers of his day already saw him as the founder of a new Telugu style of painting.²³ His paintings are still kept in a gallery named after him at Rajahmundry.⁴

A painter of Rajahmundry

Khandavalli Lakshmiranjanam and Khandavalli Balendusekharam, in their history of Andhra culture (1951; second edition 1957), call him an artist who won fame for Telugu painting in India and abroad.¹ They describe him as a born painter, skilled in three kinds of work: pictures of feeling, portraits and landscapes.¹ His home was Rajahmundry, and he died while still young.¹

His death

The Telugu monthly Bharati had printed his photograph in an issue of early 1925. Its editors wrote that they could never have imagined then that they would so soon be mourning his death.² He died on 6 February 1925 (the 13th day of the bright half of the month Magha).²

Bharati wrote that his early death plunged his family, his friends and lovers of art into grief.² Newspapers printed articles and poems about him.² A large meeting was held at Rajahmundry, his home town, to plan a memorial.²

His style

The same notice in Bharati described his art. Rama Rao had studied painting in Bombay and other cities, yet his pictures had a beauty that “cannot be described”.⁵ In the editors’ view, Indian painting had lost its own way under foreign influence, and Bengal had led the revival.⁵

Rama Rao took the paintings of Ajanta as his model, and followed Ajanta in his line and ornament.⁶ His figures showed the body clearly, and yet suggested the divine: calm, goodness and beauty came through naturally.⁶ Bharati had printed his picture of Gauri and Shankara the year before, and printed an Ajanta painting by him in the same issue as the notice.⁶

A school of painting

Five years later another writer in Bharati looked back. He gave two reasons why the new Indian style was accepted in the Andhra country.³ The first was that two Bengali painters had been brought to teach young Telugu men at the National College at Machilipatnam.³ The second was that Damerla Rama Rao had set up his new style “as an institution” at Rajahmundry.³ Telugu painters who did not simply copy Western art, he wrote, followed either Machilipatnam or Rajahmundry.³

The East Godavari district gazetteer of 1979 records the Damerla Rama Rao Memorial Art Gallery and School, set up at Rajahmundry “as early as 1925”.⁴ It shows his paintings, and teaches sculpture, drawing and painting up to diploma level.⁴

Footnotes

1. Khandavalli Lakshmiranjanam and Khandavalli Balendusekharam, Andhrula Charitra – Samskriti, 2nd ed. (1957), p. 480 (in Telugu) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

2. “Ka. Se. Damerla Rama Rao garu” (“the late Damerla Rama Rao”), editorial notes, Bharati, Vol. 2, No. 3 (March 1925), p. 159 (in Telugu) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

3. “Mana Chitrarachana” (Our painting), Bharati, Vol. 7, No. 5 (May 1930), p. 811 (in Telugu) (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

4. N. Ramesan (ed.), Andhra Pradesh District Gazetteers: East Godavari (1979), p. 200 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Cite-only; paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. Notice on Damerla Rama Rao, Bharati (March 1925), p. 160 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩²

6. Notice on Damerla Rama Rao, Bharati (March 1925), p. 161 (archive.org↗ (opens in a new tab)). Paraphrased. ↩ ↩² ↩³