TALES FROM THE CAPITAL CITY – 130

REMEMBERING ASWATHI TIRUNAL MARTHANDA VARMA B.A., THE 'PHOTOGRAPHER PRINCE' ON WORLD PHOTOGRAPHY DAY

H.H. Aswathi Tirunal Marthanda Varma B.A., c.1899, (detail). From a private collection. 

        Aswathi Tirunal Marthanda Varma B.A., a.k.a., ‘B.A. Prince’ (b.1871-d.1900) — nephew of Maharajah Moolam Tirunal of Travancore — is celebrated as an early amateur photographer, whose photograph of Swami Vivekananda adorns the entrance to Swami’s room at Belur Math. Prof. K. Sundararaman (Tutor to Aswathi Tirunal) records in ‘The Life of Swami Vivekananda,’… “The Prince was struck like all others who came into contact with him, with the Swami’s striking figure and attractive features; and being an amateur photographer, asked the Swami for a sitting and took a fine photograph which he skilfully developed into an impressive picture.” This photograph was later shown in an exhibition conducted at Madras Museum.

 Aswathi Tirunal's photograph of Swami Vivekananda, 1892.

 

The print currently housed at Belur was sourced by Swami Brahmananda, a monastic disciple of Sri Ramakrishna when he visited Travancore in 1916. While stationed in Trivandrum, Brahmananda came to know that a photograph of Swami Vivekananda was taken by the Prince of Travancore at the palace and expressed an interest to procure a print of the same. It is known that the negative of the picture was secured by P. Seshadri Aiyer from D’Cruz, the Government Photographer (Letter from Swamy Trilokyananda, R.K. Mission, Calicut, 1962). 

Sharat Sunder Rajeev, 19 August, 2020.