Harapanahalli Bheemavva

 Harapanahalli Bheemavva

Some paintings begin with a story. Others begin with a face.

When I decided to paint Harapanahalli Bheemavva, I wanted to capture something of the quiet strength associated with her life and devotion. Rather than depicting her as an elaborate saintly figure, I chose to paint a simple portrait. A woman with a sense of stillness and contemplation.

This painting was done on a 12 × 16 inch canvas board.

Building the portrait

I began the painting with a fairly limited palette of burnt umber, burnt sienna, ultramarine blue and yellow ochre. These four colors formed the foundation of the skin, hair and clothing, allowing me to establish the values and overall warmth of the portrait before introducing stronger colors.

Once the first layers were established, I glazed the painting with transparent red oxide and indanthrone blue. The transparent red oxide brought warmth and depth into the earth colors, while indanthrone blue helped create the cooler passages and deeper shadows. Then I worked on detailing the eyes. 

The lighter planes of the red sari were developed separately through selective and successive layers of naphthol red and quinacridone coral. I wanted the sari to have richness without losing the earthy quality of the painting, so the brighter reds were allowed to emerge gradually from the darker underpainting. 

The process was particularly interesting because the portrait began with a rather restrained, earthy palette and slowly acquired its final character through glazing.

Harapanahalli Bheemavva

Harapanahalli Bheemavva was a 19th-century Haridasa poetess associated with the Madhwa tradition of Karnataka. She is remembered for her devotional compositions written under the ankita “Bheemesha Krishna.”

Bheemavva is particularly significant because she belongs to the lineage of Haridasinis—women who contributed to the Dasa Sahitya tradition through devotional poetry and song. Her compositions encompass a remarkably wide range of subjects and occasions. Devotional songs, arati songs, marriage songs, songs associated with festivals and everyday life, as well as longer narrative works.

Among the works attributed to her are Nala Charitre, Sudhama Charitre, Rati Kalyana and Subhadra Kalyana, along with numerous devotional compositions. Her songs were written in accessible Kannada and were intended to be sung, allowing her devotional poetry to become part of the living musical and religious tradition of Karnataka.

Her importance in the Madhwa tradition therefore goes beyond being simply a historical woman poet. She represents an important strand of Madhwa bhakti expressed through Dasa Sahitya, and her compositions continue to be sung and remembered. Collections of her works have also been preserved and published; a collection titled Harapanahalli Bheemavva Hadugalu was published by the University of Mysore in 1984.

For me, painting Bheemavva was therefore not simply an exercise in portraiture. It was an opportunity to spend time with the image of a woman whose devotion found expression through words, music and poetry.

Perhaps, that is what I wanted this small portrait to retain. A sense of quietness, strength and inward attention.