lit a candle 1h agoI don't really know what to say here. I'd never heard the name before today, just saw a photo of that Venkateswara painting on a history page and got curious. Eighty six years old, and apparently that image has been in millions of houses since 1970. Strange to think a face I never knew existed is probably more familiar to more people than most of the actors I write about.
Their story
S. M. Srinivasan was an Indian painter from Kovilpatti in Tamil Nadu whose portraits of Lord Venkateswara, the presiding deity of the Tirumala temple, became among the most familiar devotional images in India. Reproduced on calendars, posters and framed prints for more than five decades, his paintings hung in countless…
S. M. Srinivasan was an Indian painter from Kovilpatti in Tamil Nadu whose portraits of Lord Venkateswara, the presiding deity of the Tirumala temple, became among the most familiar devotional images in India. Reproduced on calendars, posters and framed prints for more than five decades, his paintings hung in countless homes, shops and offices. He died at his home in Kovilpatti on 12 November 2026, aged 86.
Srinivasan was born in Kovilpatti, in what is now Thoothukudi district. He studied only up to Class 10 and then trained under the well known artist Kondaiah Raju, a central figure of the Kovilpatti school of devotional calendar painting, who taught him classical techniques and the depiction of Hindu deities.
In 1970 the Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams (TTD) invited him to Tirumala and granted him rare access to observe the Moolavirat, the main idol, closely inside the sanctum sanctorum. Working from that encounter, he painted the deity in two forms: one richly adorned with the traditional ornaments, garlands and jewellery, and one without ornaments that showed the underlying form of the idol. The TTD approved both works.
From the 1970s onward, printers in Sivakasi turned the approved paintings into affordable calendars and photographic prints. Devotees across Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and beyond came to associate the familiar face of Tirupati Balaji with his brushwork, and the images offered a form of daily darshan to millions who could rarely travel to the hill temple. Before his work, many homes relied on earlier, less standardised images, and his carefully observed versions set a new standard that calendar makers adopted for generations. Beyond the Tirumala commission he painted many other Hindu gods and goddesses.
Srinivasan shunned publicity and continued to live modestly on Mandithoppu Road in his home town even as his images achieved near universal recognition. His family said he died of age related ailments. Neighbours, admirers and public figures gathered at the family home to pay their respects, and political leaders and devotees in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu sent condolences.
His legacy is visible on walls across India, where the portraits he painted more than half a century ago still serve as a bridge between the sacred hill temple and everyday worship.
Biography adapted from Metro India, Deccan Chronicle, Vaartha, Telugu Oneindia and news reports.
Photos
1S. M. Srinivasan
by People Forever
it really is everywhere in South India, you'd recognize it instantly if you saw it