Curation, as a deliberate effort, is also essentially a political practice in collecting. What has been your experience?
It is political in the sense that any interpretation of history comes from a particular place. Therefore, given the scale of the paintings, as with the work of Sahib Ram (active 1778–1803), they may have been for public viewing, not private operation. This puts them in a different category of things. In the same period in Europe, major portraits of aristocrats and royalty would be publicly displayed through academies. If someone makes a new portrait of King George III, it will be shown at the Royal Academy before going to wherever it belongs. Therefore, it is seen and understood and then transmitted in printed form, in fact, which comes to India only later. So, painting itself is a political act. Or at least some paintings are. I was interested in trying to open it. It seemed to me that certainly the public imagination in this part of the world had acquired some ideas about Sawai Jai Singh in particular. And my question is where do they come from? It is not that they are mere remnants of remembered facts. No, it’s something that’s been manufactured. I’m interested in that process of creation and the role that art plays in that process.
Historians look for contexts outside the paintings to understand them, but in reality the paintings themselves are creating that historical context in a way. Please elaborate on that.
This is a two-way street. It goes without saying that, if you want to understand a work of art, you have to understand the historical circumstances in which it was created. Or literary reference. You can’t look at a picture of Krishna and the Gopis without understanding that it comes from Geeta Govinda And what is the story. Otherwise what are you looking at? How can you possibly explain this? Therefore, it is important to understand the cultural context. But yes, the work of art creates its own context. And the way we think about certain things stems partly from pictures as historical documents.
Read more:Report: Jaigarh Heritage Festival
You talked about how maps can be seen as alternative archival documents that provide a lot of information for people who are looking for it.
I thought there was a sense in which a map, even more clearly than a picture, is a document. I mean, it’s designed to chart the field. Therefore, even if it is not a topographically accurate map, it is not the job of a surveyor. I didn’t show you any maps (during the masterclass) Reading drawings and plans At the Jaigarh Heritage Festival) were created by a modern map maker using survey techniques. But still, it is showing you or trying to record historical realities. What I’m saying is that there’s another layer to it where if you ask the question, why is this map here? Who made it? And why did that person make it? Then it’s telling you more. And two Mughal examples, both of them are objects from Jaipur, which represent Mughal objects. Hence he throws light on Jaipur-Mughal relations in the 18th century. Which we know about from other sources, but this gives you clear proof of it. Another example, where you’ve actually got a detailed plan of a royal residence. It boggles the mind to think that there is such closeness, reach and trust between Jai Singh and Muhammad Shah.
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Please talk about your experience at City Palace Gallery.
I worked for the Trust for 10 years, from 2011 until Covid. I was the consulting director. So, I was a visiting director, if you like, with a specific brief to work on the development of new galleries and run a publishing programme. We created books in six volumes highlighting different aspects of the collection.
And we created a gallery here in Jaigarh and a painting and photography gallery in the City Palace. We were working on the next gallery, which was the old transport gallery, Baggi Khana, which is now Rath Khana, when COVID interrupted the work and it was a little slow to get back on its feet, partly because Mrinalini (Venkateshwaran), who had worked with me and is now the head of the collection, left to go to the UK for three years. And I started working in Delhi. I worked for DAG. But we got things back on track and completed the Rath Khana. We have rebuilt the Sabha Niwas, with complete architectural preservation along with internal changes. And now, we have recreated the Sileh Khana (Gallery of weapons and armour). The new exhibit in that space is called Power & Diplomacy. The idea is that war is only one type of power and that it is the last type of power. And, in a way, it represents failure because you want to avoid it at all costs. So, power and diplomacy is about how you assert your authority and negotiate relationships with other powers. We felt that the story was not told just with weapons. It was told in paintings, in textiles, in court robes, in all kinds of objects, in manuscripts. What kind of books did he read? What types of manuscripts did they read and disseminate?
Similarly, when we reach the textile gallery, we are going to replace it with something on the theme of Jaipur and the world: How did Jaipur present itself on the global level in the fields of science, art and industry? Fabric is an important part of that story. Till date everyone knows about Jaipur Textile. It is a major commercial item which is produced in Jaipur. In the 19th century, Jaipur was engaged in promoting itself globally through the production of decorative art objects in brassware, stoneware and woodwork etc. It was screened all over the world. And that’s the story we want to tell.
Jaigarh is somewhat different as Jaigarh is still owned by the former royal family. This is a separate trust. It gets a lot of tourists, but obviously doesn’t have the collection that the palace has. This is a different kind of experience. And there is a lot of open space in it. I think the feeling was that an event like this, the annual Jaigarh Heritage Festival, promotes it locally and internationally. It just makes the space come alive. If you did this at the City Palace, it would look like we were turning it into a jeweler’s market; This won’t work. But there is so much space here that you can organize a market for two days in Lakshmi Vilas. And it feels great. That’s a refreshing way to look at it. It brings more people in.
What role do such festivals play in the conservation and promotion of heritage sites?
Speaking as a historian, Jaigarh has been little studied, much less understood. And there are some special reasons for that. In the case of Jaigarh, it did not continue under family ownership only. It continued to function with the military cantonment of the old Rajasthan State Forces. Believe it or not, till the 1970s, till the Emergency. So even after independence they kept a little because Man Singh had a military career. Bhavani Singh had a military career. They held back some of the forces of the state and were surrounded here. Therefore, no one was allowed inside. Therefore, all the historians of military architecture who got a chance to study other great forts of Rajasthan and might have written about Chittor or Mehrangarh or Jaisalmer could not come here.
I was just comparing notes with one of the few people who wrote about it early on. In the 1980s, when it was opened to the public, Rajendra Singh Khangarot, who has written the first and only book on it, said that there were books that forts of indiaWho would take Amer Mahal as a fort because they could not enter here. Everyone, even Rajasthan Tourism Development Corporation, calls the thing situated at the bottom of the hill as Amer Fort. This is not a fort, it is a palace. This is a fort. And the single unit has two parts: one now belongs to the State Archeology Department and one still belongs to the family. But you should see them together. I am happy to say that the road connecting them has now reopened. Therefore, it was not studied much because it still had a military cantonment.
No one was allowed inside. During the Emergency, Indira Gandhi sent forces with bulldozers to enter the area. She thought she was going to find some hidden treasure. I’m happy to say he didn’t get it. So, it is not so famous. Obviously, everyone in the field knows it. You see it sitting on a hill all the time. But it’s great to see it animated with so many people and so many things.
Simar Bhasin is a literary critic and research scholar based in Delhi. Her essay ‘A Tale of Resistance: Desire and Dissent in Selma Dabbagh’s Short Fiction’ was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ by the Wasafiri Essay Prize 2024.
