Vaddadi Papaiah facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
VADDADI PAPAIAH
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A statue of Vaddadi Papaiah
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| Born | 10 September 1921 Srikakulam, Srikakulam district
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| Died | 30 December 1992 Srikakulam, Srikakulam district
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| Occupation | Painter |
Vaddadi Papaiah (1921–1992), also known as Papayya or by his pen-name Vapa, was a very famous painter and illustrator from India. He was well-known for creating amazing covers for Telugu magazines, especially the popular children's magazine Chandamama.
Contents
Early Life and Inspiration
Vaddadi Papaiah was born on September 10, 1921, in Srikakulam in the Srikakulam district. His parents were Ramamurthy and Mahalakshmi. His father was a drawing teacher, which helped Papaiah learn many drawing skills from a young age.
He was a child prodigy, meaning he was super talented even as a kid! He started his art journey at just 5 years old. He was greatly inspired by a famous painting called "Kodanda Rama" by Raja Ravi Varma. This inspiration led him to draw a picture of "Lord Hanuman." His father also told him stories from Hindu mythologies like the Mahabharata and Ramayana. These stories had a big impact on him and made him very interested in Indian sculpture and art.
His Amazing Career as an Artist
Papaiah learned painting from his father and published his very first painting in a magazine called Andhra Jyothi in 1942. Around 1961, he started working for Chandamama magazine. He drew many front and back covers for them, often inspired by scenes from Indian mythology and old Sanskrit plays. He also created covers for other magazines like Yuva and Telugu Naadi.
Papaiah's art was so popular that it was featured in a special two-volume book called the Chandamama Art Book. The second volume of this book is completely dedicated to his incredible work!
Working with Magazines
When Papaiah first started his career, Kasinadhuni Nageswara Rao encouraged him to publish his pictures in his magazine. Papaiah went on to draw for many magazines, including 'Rerani', 'Manjusha', 'Abhisarika', 'Andhra Patrika', 'Bharathi', and 'Andhra Jyothi'.
Thanks to his friendship with the editor of "Chandamama" magazine, he worked there for 50 years! At that time, "Chandamama" was published in eight different languages, which made Papaiah's pictures famous all over India. He also drew four or five pictures every month for the magazine "Yuva." Later, his pictures were published in the weekly and monthly magazines of "Swathi" for 10 years.
He often signed his pictures with his pen name "va.pa." (which is 'వ.పా.' in Telugu) or a special symbol "0|0". Some people believe this symbol means "the past was zero, the present is zero, and I will stand in the future." He was truly one of India's best illustrators for children's books.
Papaiah as a Writer
Vaddadi Papaiah was not just a great artist; he was also a talented writer! He finished the remaining parts of the "DeviBhagavatham" stories in "Chandamama," which were originally started by Sri Kodavatiganti Kutumbarao. He also wrote the famous story "Vishnu Katha."
Some of His Famous Artworks
- He created beautiful paintings based on different Raagas (melodies) in Indian music.
- He drew story pictures of Sri Ganesha for "Chandamama" magazine.
- He wrote a well-known story called "Vintha Chukka."
- He drew many famous paintings that appeared in various magazines.
- One of his famous paintings for "Chandamama" was "Viswa Roopa of Ganesha," showing Ganesha in a grand, universal form.
- He made a famous painting based on the idea of "Pushpa Vilapam" (The Lament of Flowers), a concept written by the famous writer Jandhyala Papayya Sastry.
- He also created a famous portrait based on the concept of "Trisanku Swargam" from "Devi Bhagavatham."
- The life story of Vaddadi Papaiah and his portraits were featured in the weekly edition of the newspaper "Andhra Bhoomi."
- Vaddadi Papaiah on Telugu Wikipedia
