New Delhi, Nov. 8 -- In 1907, barely a year after the death of the celebrated Raja Ravi Varma, the press in Madras was all praise for another artist with the same last name.

As much as "the people of this country" were in mourning for Ravi Varma, The Patriot observed, it was a source of "genuine pleasure" that he left behind an heir who "even while so young," had demonstrated "brilliant possibilities with his inherited brush." Some years later, The Hindu would speak of this other Varma as displaying "the same perfect drawing, the same wealth of imagination, and the same profusion of colour" in his canvases as his acclaimed father. "The Mantle of Ravi Varma," it was added, had "surely"-if also somewhat predictably-"fallen" on the son. Yet...