Over hundred rare items like the 17th century dwarpal from Kerala and the 18th century toran from a temple in Nepal are on display at the National Museum. Trisha Mukherjee reports
The fragile pages of the 19th century text, Ramcharitmanas lie protected in a glass chamber in the National Museum. The manuscript which tells the tale of lord Rama’s deeds is displayed in two folios alongside each other. Written in Awadhi and illustrated with ink and gouache on paper, it traces its origin back to Rajasthan.
As one walks across the 6,000 square feet of area housing objects that speak of India’s past, h/she is most likely to wonder what makes these objects “priceless.” It is the time that they have survived. What is even more fascinating is that all these reminiscences of history belong to a single person.
A Passionate Eye is an ongoing art exhibition at the National Museum which has on display, items from a major donation made to the National Museum in 1976 by Cl Bharany, in memory of his father, RK Bharany. It is the first time since its inception that the museum is exhibiting items from a private collection. “It highlights the role played by private collectors in helping to put together the nation’s public museums,” said Venu V, director general of National Museum.
“Apart from acknowledging the major donation made by the Bharanys, the exhibition is an attempt to engage the viewers with the idea of how a collector chases his passion,” said Mrinalini Venkateswaran, who has co-curated the exhibition with Gilles Tillotson and Pramod Kumar.
About hundred items, from sculptures in stone and wood to paintings, manuscripts and textiles, have been put together thematically to reflect this variety and eclecticism. Objects have been grouped sometimes by material and at other times by subject, irrespective of provenance and date, to highlight the varied and layered links that inspire collecting.
This becomes evident in the little chamber that houses the manuscripts along with a few other items. “Apart from Tulsidas’ Ramcharita Manas, the other set of manuscripts happens to be the three folios of Vishnu Sahasranama from Chamba (former Himachal Pradesh). We have tried to incorporate other objects from the hills like the wall paintings in that chamber,” said Venkateswaran. “The 17th century dwarpal from Kerala and the 18th century toran from a temple in Nepal have been used conceptually by putting them at the entrance of the chamber, like the textiles have been draped the way they should be worn,” she added.
Spanning over a time period of 20 centuries, the objects on display represent every region of the country, “from Kashmir to Kerala and Gujarat to Bengal.” Some items from the collection were also sold on to scholars like AK Coomaraswamy, Karl Khandalavala and Rai Krishnadas. The diversity is not merely limited to the regions but they are diverse in terms of social context too. They range from courtly art and elite items to rural and folk art. “The Bharanys’ breadth of vision is a notable feature of his art of collecting; irrespective of where and when works were made and for whom, his eye alights on anything of beauty,” said Venkateswaran. While the stone pieces are representative of central and eastern India, the wood sculptures belong to the south. “The stone pieces are all from the outer walls of temples — that bear narrative friezes and individual murtis in niches, reflecting the traditions of eastern and central India. The wooden pieces are mostly from Kerala where temple craftsmen developed a rich repertoire of iconographical and decorative carving, often embellishing the sculpture with pigment. Painted wood was also used in Rajasthan in the west,” she informed.
The curators said that the miniature paintings mostly belong to the Rajput courts of the former states scattered across what is now Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.
“Many of the miniatures are illustrations to sacred texts such as the Bhagavad Purana. In other cases such as the Ragamala, they serially illustrate texts or episodes from well-known stories, independent of a written volume but nevertheless meant to be enjoyed as a group,” she said. The textile works on display largely belong to Kashmir, Punjab and Bengal. It was the Bharanys’ interactions with John Irwin, a pioneer in the study of Kashmir shawls and Stella Kramrisch who researched on kantha embroidery practised in Bengal that shaped the family’s textile repertoire.
“The Kashmir shawls depict the gardens, one of the region’s delights. Each of them is a bed of spring blooms. Woven and embroidered, their patterns varying from the informal blooms on meadows, to the ordered flowerbeds of formal gardens, both familiar to visitors to the region,” said Venkateswaran.
Talking about the embroidery on the phulkaris and kanthas on view, Venkateswaran quoted Stella Kramrisch who passionately argues for the design repertoire of women across India, “The total stock of their designs is entrusted to the memory of the women. Stitch by stitch they realise the meaning of the ground which they cover even if they are unable to explain it. This ignorance of knowledge implies a correctness of doing things, an infallibility which is evident. It results in a display, in a manifestation where everything has its place in relation to the whole.” The exhibition will conclude on August 14.