January 23rd, 2000
Rosemary Crill, deputy keeper of the Indian department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, was invited to help with the display of Mehrangarh Fort Palace Museum, Jodhpur. Here she came across paintings accumulated by the ruling family of Jodhpur over generations. This exposure inspired her to seek out examples of the school in other public and private collections and offer a comprehensive and detailed study to readers.
The book Marwar Painting: A History of the Jodhpur Style (IBH & Mehrangarh Publications, Rs2,500, pp.184), is a rich and resplendent offering and will afford many hours of delight and joy to both scholars and amateurs who are interested in art.
The local tradition of painting although represented by few samples is impressive. The response to influence of the imperial court is well registered. The quality of portraiture in the cases of Gaj Singh (1619-38), Jaswant Singh (1638-78), Ajit Singh and Abhai Singh (1707-49) shows great insight into the character and circumstances of the subject and helps in understanding the history of the period.
However, the quality of reproductions could have improved substantially with the use of a gold block. Gold is an Indian dimension in painting and its use makes the clothes with their brocades, the bodies with their ornaments, the thrones, the howdahs, the swords and the shields come alive. Its absence makes the total effect dull and takes away from them a colour reproduction. The great black and white prints of yesteryear are more evocative of the originals than the colour prints without gold. Unfortunately, this field is still dominated by Europeans and Americans who appear to be insensitive in this area.
Despite certain limitations, Rosemary Crill’s Marwar Painting is a rich and resplendent book, finds out AKHILESH MITHAL
A second shortcoming of the book is in the understanding of political history. The Western understanding of India is that it was the battlefield between Hindus and Muslims, Mughals and Rajputs. The fact that the Emperor Shah Jahan was three-quarters Rajput is not seen in the way the appearance and shape and light of the eye changes from an Akbar to a Dara Shikoh. The slanting and small Mongol eye gives way to large “Indian” beauty of an eye. We are instead told: “Part of Akbar’s policy of domination of the Rajputs was to take the daughters of the conquered rulers into his family by marriage.”
The current reading of the events of the 16th century in India would appear to suggest that the Mughals became enemy number one for the Rajputs when Babur defeated Rana Sanga at Kanwaha in 1527. The Rana was supported by all the Indian rulers who felt threatened by the newcomer. The Rajputs were there in large numbers and the vanguard had 30,000 Pathans who wanted to avenge the defeat Babur had inflicted upon them in 1526 at Panipat. The Panipat battle saw 12,000 troops defeat nearly 100,000 Pathans aided by Rajas such as Bikramjit of Gwalior, Kanwaha is said to have seen some 120,000 Rajputs and Pathans defeated by a force of 8,000.
The first marriage contracted by Akbar was with the princess Man Bai Bhar Mall. The Raja offered a treaty which he wanted to strengthen with a matrimonial alliance. The initiative was from the bride’s side. This alliance was fruitful and gave Akbar his heir, Prince Salim, who later became emperor Jahan-gir.
The alliance was very beneficial for Amber and the family became rich beyond their dreams of avarice and remains affluent to this day. The same is the case with Jodhpur. Their daughters provided status as queens and empresses for the Mughal Emperors. Shah Jahan’s mother was a Ratthaud and Raja Jaswant Singh commanded armies and governed large and rich provinces for the Mughals. He allied with whichever son of the Shah of Iran he pleased, lost battle after battle but remained in power until his death.
Raja Jaswant Singh, cousin of Manwati or Jagat Gossain, mother of the prince Khorram was a major mole of the Mughal court. When the battle for succession took place after Shah Jahan’s near fatal illness, Jaswant was given command by Dara and in due course by Awrungzeb. The Raja did pretty much what he pleased and was with or against the imperial princes contending for the thrones that took his fancy or interpretation of their chances of success. Despite all this he continued to be in powerful positions till the end. Ajit Singh, posthumous son of Jaswant became the first Raja to take his daughter back from the imperial seraglio after her husband’ death.
The other limitation of the author is the lack of Indian language literacy. For example, illustration No.120 shows a rat surrounded by men carrying sticks and other weapons. The text says: “A painting by Juni shows a typically inept group of opium addicts surrounding a rat apparently with the intent to kill it.” The Hindi written on the picture says: “Choohey sey durey huwey ufeemchee,” that translates as “Opium addicts terrified of a rat!” Despite these small errors this is a worthwhile effort and will help develop both interest and knowledge in the studies of the subject.