India, April 11 -- Few Indian artists have been as influential as Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906). Born in the Travancore royal family, Ravi Varma was one of the earliest - and the most successful - artists in India to adopt the European medium of oil painting. Most of his celebrated paintings drew their subjects from Hindu epics and puranas. They remain popular to this day. Ravi Varma hit headlines most recently when one of his works (Yashoda and Krishna) fetched a record price at a recent auction. His best works are on view at public galleries in Thiruvananthapuram and Baroda. Rupika Chawla's Raja Ravi Varma: Painter of Colonial India is a fine introduction to this great artist, who travelled widely, resided in multiple princely states and colonial cities, and produced a large body of work that birthed Indian modernism. Drawing from archival material, this work uncovers the layered aesthetic of a pioneering painter....