Museum objects, artifacts, and archival items from the Sarmaya collection.
Gingee was a formidable fort in southern Arcot in the erstwhile Carnatic region. It was captured by Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj in 1677 and remained in the hands of the Marathas until 1698. In this year, Shivaji’s son Rajaram Bhosle I ensconced himself in the fort in response to Aurangzeb’s advancing armies in the kingdom. Mughal… Read more »
Elichpur has an interesting place in history. The city today known as Achalpur in Maharasthra was for long a bone of contention between a revolving group of players including the Delhi Sultans, the Mughals, the Marathas and other kingdoms. Elichpur makes an appearance in medieval texts for the first time in 1269 CE, when Alauddin… Read more »
This coin was minted during the early days of the reign of an exceptional leader who steered the Delhi Sultanate from 1236 to 1240. Razia Sultan (she was not a fan of ‘Sultana’) was the daughter of Iltutmish of the Mamluk dynasty, and the first woman monarch of this land—and among very few of her… Read more »
The paintings of artist Arpita Singh are primarily satirical. Yet, they are infused with emotion, creating a bridge between allegory and direct expression. She is a master of visual storytelling, and in her stories she brings forward the psychological impacts of two major oppressions in the world: patriarchy and systemic violence through wars. The artist… Read more »
As one of the founders of the Progressive Artists’ Group and an idealist who was once imprisoned for participating in MK Gandhi’s salt satyagraha, KH Ara seemed to have acquired a somewhat avuncular air in the art scene of ’40s and’50s Bombay. That was rudely challenged when he got into nudes. And he got into… Read more »
This print is from Auguste Racinet’s “Le Costume Historique,” (Paris, circa 1880). Auguste Racinet’s ‘Le Costume Historique’, published in France between 1876 and 1888, was the most extensive costume study ever attempted for its time. The six-volume work is highly peculiar in its details and attempts to cover the history of style from around the world,… Read more »
This print showcasing Indian styles and traditions is from Auguste Racinet’s “Le Costume Historique,” (Paris, circa 1880). Auguste Racinet’s ‘Le Costume Historique’, published in France between 1876 and 1888, was the most extensive costume study ever attempted for its time. The six-volume work is highly peculiar in its details and attempts to cover the history… Read more »
This photograph of the Nautch Bungalow at the Shalimar garden in Kashmir was taken by Samuel Bourne in the late 19th century. The Nautch Bungalow stands in Shalimar Bagh, Kashmir built by Jahangir for his beloved wife Noor Jahan in 1616. The garden is one of the few surviving Mughal gardens, based on the Persian… Read more »
The title of this series of charcoal drawings by the young painter and sculptor Dilesh Hazare is Purushartha, the Sanskrit word for ‘the goal of human endeavour’. The four purusharthas are dharma, artha, kama and moksha or righteousness, prosperity, pleasure and liberation. It’s clear which goal the subjects here are engaged in pursuing. Hazare’s nudes… Read more »
A lot of Pradeepkumar’s work deals with the subject matter of figures and their role in a world that was created for them. His art invites the viewer to lurk into this world of shrubbery and nature to try to understand its significance. His focus on native and rural aspects directly alludes to his identity… Read more »
In this set of paintings—titled Goddess Category: Goddess & Non-Goddess (painting on the left) and Non-Goddess Category: Goddess & Non-Goddess (painting on the right)—the artist exposes how women are simultaneously deified and demonised by Indian society. In the painting on the left, an eight-armed god is represented as female but with the head of a cow. She… Read more »
Gopa Trivedi is inspired by the insignificance of the mundane. Through her work she adds a sense of purpose and narrative to a setting that might seem ordinary. A lot of her work takes into account aspects such as the roles of space, time, degeneration and fragmentation in a composition. Even in this untitled painting… Read more »
This painting belongs to a series by Manisha Gera Baswani called Luminously between Eternities and its title Grishma is a truncation of the Sanskrit word for summer, Grishmarutu. The palm at the centre of the work has a very evocative yet meditative quality, with a world of texture evident in the leaves and the bark of the tree.… Read more »
This quarter silver rupee weighs 2.74 grams—a silver rupee during Akbar’s reign would weigh between 10 to 11 grams. In addition, this is an Ilahi type coin, which means it’s dated in the Ilahi era as opposed to the more Hijri era favoured by Islamic rulers. Din-i-ilahi was the faith founded by Akbar in AH… Read more »
Babur, the founder of the Mughal dynasty was a descendant of Timur and Genghis Khan—and he didn’t want you to forget it. One of the ways in which he pledged his allegiance was by introducing the Shahrukhi denomination of coin to the Subcontinent. Shahrukhis were flat, round silver coins first issued by the Timurid ruler… Read more »
The Korewahs are a tribe from the central region of India, near the sources of the rivers Son, Narmada and Ib and other tributaries of the Mahanadi. They are populous in the hills between Sirgoojah (Surguja) and Jushpur (Jashpur) in present-day Chhattisgarh. The Korewahs were shifting cultivators. They grew rice, millet, pulses, pumpkin, cucumber and… Read more »
The Delhi Durbar of 1902-3 was conceived of by Lord Curzon to take place in December and January to celebrate the succession of Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark to the throne of Emperor and Empress of India. The King and the Queen, however, did not attend the Durbar, but instead sent Prince Arthur, Duke… Read more »
The word Satkhanda means seven-storeyed but this beautifully proportioned tower would never live up to its name as construction was halted at level 4. Nawab Muhammad Ali Shah commissioned the structure during his reign, which started in 1837 and went on till 1842. He built it as a watch-tower to provide a bird’s eye view… Read more »
Historically, Qaiserbagh or the king’s garden, comprised of a range of palaces to accommodate the Nawab of Awadh and his zenana. The last ruler of awadh, Wajid Ali Shah (r.1847-1856), began the building of this palace a year after his succession and it was finished in 1850. The King’s mission was to make Qaisarbagh the… Read more »
Tower of Silence, also known as the dakhma or funerary tower, is where deceased Zoroastrians are exposed to the sky to be devoured by scavenger birds—it’s known as a ‘sky burial’. According to the community’s belief, a dead body is impure not only because of its deterioration and infection but also because evil spirits conquer… Read more »