There are not many exhibitions that start with a life-size model of an elephant complete with sound effects, and conclude with a Rolls Royce. Welcome to the world of Indian rulers, where both modes of transport – one ceremonial and the other asserting a luxurious western modernity – were a natural part of a maharaja’s lifestyle.
The Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) exhibition typifies India’s accommodation of wild contradictions – asceticism with lavish extravagance; understated good taste with ostentation; modernism co-existing with ancient ritual.
Anna Jackson’s curatorial pizzazz has been demonstrated in earlier exhibitions such as Encounters: The Meeting of Asia and Europe 1500-1800 in 2004.
It is again in evidence in this ambitious display, which has been drawn from several collections, including key loans from former royal families of India.
The theming of the exhibition into Royal Spectacle, Kingship in India, Shifting of Power, The Raj and Princely India is economic and effective. The themes are needed because it spans three centuries, is of a daunting scale and complexity, and deals with the rapidly shifting power base involving Hindu, Sikh and Muslim kings, a foreign imperial power and a freedom struggle led by the intelligentsia.
Indian royals (maharaja is used here as a generic term to include a range of Muslim and Hindu titles, which is bound to raise a few eyebrows) were at their most flashy when their power was on the wane, circumscribed by the British who had an unwelcome and detailed knowledge of the state of their finances.
The relationship between the maharajas and the British, although governed by expediency on both sides, was not as clear-cut as the British might have liked it to be though.
Some of the rulers, such as the nizams of Hyderabad, held sway over territories that were larger than England. And though they were sometimes badly behaved, including breathtaking extravagance, these were not just pantomime kings.
The royal women were often more intriguing than the men. The progressive Rani Chimnabai II of Baroda not only wrote a book, The Position of Women in Indian Life, denouncing the exploitation of women’s labour, but was also mother to the rebellious beauty Indira Devi, who scandalised royal circles by breaking her engagement to one prince to marry another from the rather racier royal family of Cooch Behar.
She, in her turn, was mother to Gayatri Devi of Jaipur, probably the best-known Indian royal in the west, famed as much for her looks as for her willingness to champion women’s rights in Jaipur and take up the cudgels against powerful figures such as Indira Gandhi.
Sultans of bling
Tradition and modernity are best captured through images of Yashwant Rao Holkar II of Indore and his wife Sanyogita. Photographs taken by Man Ray in 1930 show them in formal western dress, but in informal, almost playful, poses.
But in their portraits by Bernard Boutet de Monvel, they retreat into regal aloofness, almost swamped by the trappings of their position.
Maharaja does not stint on the sumptuous panoply of royalty and drips with jewels, intricately woven and embroidered textiles, arms and weaponry, royal emblems such as the yak-tail whisk and gaddi (a textile throne), furniture and exquisite paintings.
Undoubtedly great patrons of the arts in India, the maharajas were also important commissioners of western jewellery, porcelain, glass and furniture (and cars).
The emerald-green cut and engraved glass thali set produced in Birmingham and commissioned by the Maharana of Mewar is a magnificent example of transcultural creativity.
Costliness and beauty do not always go hand in hand. A canopy commissioned by the Hindu maharaja Khanderao Gaekwad of Baroda is encrusted with seed pearls, coloured glass beads, diamonds, rubies and emeralds, but is more impressive in terms of the Gaekwad’s desire to demonstrate respect for Islam than for its aesthetic qualities.
And the elephant mystery clock of onyx, corals, jade, pearls, crystal and diamonds by Cartier and commissioned by Maharaja Ranjitsinhji of Nawanagar is actually rather tacky.
Resonating past
But when splendour, craftsmanship and design are combined, the effect can be stunning, as with a sword and scabbard, set with a complex arrangement of diamonds, presented by Maharaja Mahado Singh II of Jaipur to Edward VII for his coronation.
The maharajas’ legacy is embodied in the continuing dynamism of the various artforms of which they were patrons. Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels, and other purveyors of western decorative arts, may have come to depend on the maharajas as major commissioners, but Indian royalty continued their patronage of indigenous arts, including textiles and miniatures.
Chanderi and Maheshwari cotton saris are still produced in the state of Madhya Pradesh, but now the patrons are not just royal families, but the Indian public.
The art of miniature painting is a flourishing craft tradition in India and a serious artform in Pakistan, where artists such as Imran Qureshi, Ayesha Khalid and Shazia Sikander have not only trained in its rigorous techniques, but have also subverted the artform to provide a scathing commentary of our times.
Maharaja also proves that although Indira Gandhi abolished princely titles along with privy purses in 1971, the previously royal still have a tenacious grip on the public consciousness, particularly in the prince-rich state of Rajasthan. Indeed, both the exhibition and the publication are punctilious in their use of royal titles.
Many Indians and Pakistanis I know are planning to visit Maharaja as they want to reconnect with a past that resonates for them. These princes and princesses, many of whose descendants are still wealthy and powerful, are an integral part of India’s history, and define it in terms of our collective memory.
Nima Poovaya-Smith is the founding director of Alchemy, a cultural enterprise company based in Yorkshire
Cost Undisclosed
Sponsor Ernst & Young
Curator Anna Jackson, deputy keeper, Asian department, V&A
Consultant curator Amin Jaffer, international director of Asian art, Christie’s
Research curator Deepika Ahlawat
Exhibition Design Urban Salon
Project management Cultural Innovations
Exhibition lighting DHA Design
Exhibition contractor Querk
Graphic design Wood McGrath
Exhibition ends 17 January
