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This study documents and analyses contemporary practices of iconisation of social-religious reform leaders of Kerala of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, to understand the visual vocabularies, forms, conventions and circulative meanings of a popular visual culture practices.

I begin with a story:       

This is the story of how the famous photographer of the Travancore Palace, Zachariah D’cruz took the photograph of the Bishop H.H Parumala Mar Gregorios, popularly known as Parumala Thirumeni [Fig. 5].  He was ordered to do by the Dewan Peshkar Nagamayya in order to provide a specimen illustration of the “Puthenkoot Metropolitan” style of attire in his famous Travancore State Manual. After several unsuccessful attempts, the Bishop one day agreed to have his photograph taken any time other than the morning and afternoon prayer times. The rest of the ‘story’ or ‘event’ has been narrated by the renowned artist K. M Varghese:

…..It was already past 11’oclock. Zachariah D’cruz positioned the camera correctly in the churchyard and informed the bishop. Bishop Parumala wore his outer vestments and headscarf and stood before the curtain. D’cruz peered into the camera in preparation for the photograph. Despite making several adjustments with his lens, he was unable to get the right image of the bishop. The sunlight was fierce and harsh. Seeing D’cruz struggling without taking the picture, finally Bishop Parumala asked him what the matter was.

“I feel very sad that I am not able to get a good photograph for a government record that has space for good pictures” said D’cruz. Bishop Parumala looked intently at D’cruz’s face and then immediately went into meditation standing with his face turned silently up towards the sun. He then raised his gold crucifix to the sky and reverently traced the holy cross. Wonders! Instantly a dark cloud appeared and shielded the blazing sun. The light was just right as perfect as, or even more so, than a studio light. D’cruz was totally shaken. The Bishop calmly directed D’cruz to swiftly take the picture. Swinging into action, D’cruz quickly adjusted the backdrop and his august model’s stance and proceeded to rapidly open and then shut his lens. In an instant, D’cruz saw that the sky had returned to what it was. No sign of change. The sun’s orb stood alone in the sky blazing as furiously as ever. There was no sign of the dark cloud. Nothing!  Where did it vanish? How did it go? It was all over in an instant… (Karingattil 2002, 375-78*).

Fig. 5

This story reveals how the new technology of photography—which apparently reproduces factual reality—was also caught up with the mysterious/supernatural powers and veneration of a spiritual and religious leader of the Malankara Church. However, the primary intention here is not to analyse such adoration. Instead it is to examine the process of efficacies of iconographic construction and its circulation in the public domain of Kerala. The story narrated above together with the image taken by D’cruz itself constructs the aura of liminal/divine power of that image. The image itself acquired an iconographic status for iconolatry, or image worship. In this process, the iconisation of the image, as well as the practice of iconolatry, modify the original photographic image.  In this modification, various visual technologies such as photography, painting and printing are appropriated, and their aesthetic sensibilities are integrated to create a radiant divine aura for the image of the religious and reform leaders. It is in this context that I have attempted to document and analyse the contemporary practices of iconisation of images of reform leaders such as Parumala Thirimeni, Ayyankali, Poyikayil Yohanan (Sree Kumara Guru Devan), Chattampi Swamikal, and Sree Narayana Guru. While documenting historical and contemporary photographs and other images of these reformists, I shall also explain the historically evolved process of male icon making.

This study will also address the question of how publicly circulated images of male reform leaders have attained and produced different meanings—secular, religious and political—within the everyday practices of the Kerala society. I intend to show the changes in photographic representation when a man attains the status of guru/saint. The images and their bodily positioning are analysed along with the problem of how the social reform project influenced the construction of such images.  Does the introduction of new technologies and images generate new ideas for reform?  Along with this question, we need to consider how new visual practices create new sorts of sacred spaces, as well as how images and the situated/exhibited spaces they contain produce the religious and political ideologies of the present. To begin with, I briefly examine the sequences of ‘pictoriography’ of the iconographic construction of four socio-religious reform leaders: (1) Parumala Thirumeni (1848-1902), (2) Chattambi Swamikal (1853-1924), (3) Ayankali (1863-1941) and (4) Poykayil Sree Kumara Gurudevan (Poyakayil Yohannan,1879-1939). Later in this essay, I further contextualize the various images of (5) Sree Narayana Guru (1855-1928) created over the last half century, the spaces where they were circulated and the manner in which they generated meanings.

*Karingattil, John Thomas, Fr. 2002. “Parumala Thirumeni Chithrakalayil (Parumala Thirumeni in the art of painting)”. In Jacob Kurian ed., Parumala Smruthi, 375-382. Kottayam: Malankara Sabha.

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