S. Rajam, An Extraordinary Artist

Source: HPI
KAPAA, HI, USA, February 2, 2010: (By Hinduism Today’s Editor-in-Chief) We first met S. Rajam back in 1995 in Chennai, South India, having seen his amazing illustrations in a book, Periya Puranam. The art looked so elegant, but also so ancient and traditional. It was the only authentic South Indian art form we had ever seen. Perhaps it was done a century ago? Two? We inquired and, to our delight, found the artist was not only alive but just a few miles away. Thus began fifteen years of collaboration.

S. Rajam, though in his 80s, painted for us tirelessly, producing hundreds of works that appear on the covers of all of Sivaya Subramuniyaswami’s books and many of our Hinduism Today covers and articles (see pages 66 and 70 of this issue). He once told us that in his youth he was talented, and full of callow ego, an ego that suffered when he could not equal the great masters of yore in his artistic achievements. The budding master thought to travel to the origins of spiritual art — Sigiriya Caves in Sri Lanka, Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, India and more. His goal: to learn how these monastics had achieved their rare skills. His finding: it was their consciousness, not their technique that made them great. Learning this, he set out to change his consciousness, and that ultimately informed his art. As good as his art was, and it was the best, he was more widely known as a composer and musician who promoted vivadhi ragas and popularized kshetra kirthans. He also acted in three films. We honor his life and his work, and are thankful that we have, here at our editorial offices, over 600 of his original canvases, spanning the decades from the 1940s onward. S. Rajam was 91 when he passed on January 29th.