Museum objects, artifacts, and archival items from the Sarmaya collection.
Plan of the military town of Bellary under the British government. It was an important town in British India, being parts of both the princely states of Madras and Hyderabad, before being transferred to Karnataka in 1956. The map is a monochrome engraving on paper, and points out important locations of the city such as… Read more »
This 1808 map of South India shows the territories held by the East India Company, outlined in pink. Mysore, nominally independent under the Wodeyar (Wadiyar) dynasty, is depicted in yellow, an island surrounded by British possessions. All territories marked B, N or M represent those areas ceded to the British and their allies, the Nizam… Read more »
This is a rare copper coin issued by the monarch of Mysore state Krishnaraja Wodeyar. On the obverse is inscribed the official emblem of the elephant executed in intricate detail, with two lines of inscriptions on top. The line on the top has the word “Shri” inscribed between the sun and the moon. The reverse… Read more »
This map of Mughal India created by Matthew Seuter in 1745 is titled Imperii Magni Mogolis. The map charts out the extent of the Mughal Empire, extending to Persia and Kandahar (In the west) and Burma and Thailand (In the east). To the south it extends to the Malabar coasts and also points out the… Read more »
This is a silver coin issued by the state of Bikaner under Ganga Singh, the Maharaja of the Princely State of Bikaner from 1888 to 1934. On the obverse is a mustachioed portrait of the king, with a turban worn in the Bikaneri style. Around the portrait is inscribed “Mahadhiraj Rajshri Ganga Singh Bahadur” in… Read more »
This map shows the plan of operations to carry out the Siege of Lucknow in 1857. During the Uprising, Lucknow held out for much longer than the rest of the strongholds of northern India, and an operation had to be devised by the British troupes to evacuate trapped and imprisoned Europeans from the Residency building.… Read more »
This is a military map showing the various positions of the British Army, and the plan of their attack on the walled city of Shahjahanabad. Created during the Uprising of 1857, the map points out various important landmarks such as the Chandni Chowk and the Subzee Mandi as also the gates around the fort such… Read more »
This is a X kas or 10 Cash coin of Indo-Danish extraction. Relic of an empire we don’t often mention when we talk about colonial rule in India. The Danes made an official appearance in these parts after the monarch of Denmark, King Christian IV signed a charter for the establishment of the Danish East… Read more »
This is a rare copper coin with the denomination of jital issued under the reign of Tirumalaraya of the Vijayanagara Empire. He was the first king of the Empire from the Aravidu dynasty and this coin is of immense historical value. On the obverse side the coin features the official emblem of the Empire featuring… Read more »
This is an engraving on Hand-made paper, after Hilippus Baldaeus (1632 – 1672). Craganor is the Anglisised name of the region of Kodungallur, a municipality in the Thissur district of Kerala. In history, the place was one of the leading ports and commercial centres of South India, also associated with the ancient port town of… Read more »
This is an artist’s imagination of the danger faced by British families in India during the 1857 Uprising. In the engraving, a mother can be seen nursing a baby while a toddler sits close by. Two revolutionaries enter the room, one holding a sword dripping with what looks like blood and the other wielding a… Read more »
During the Uprising of 1857, events in the city of Lucknow took a rather violent turn. As the news of the Uprising broke, the British officials and their families took shelter in the Residency, while the rebelling soldiers blocked every means of outside contact for them and continued their attacks for over 90 days. A… Read more »
This is an aquatint engraving showing the northern entrance of the Bangalore fort post the attack on Bangalore by the British East India Company during the Third Aglo-Mysore War in 1791. The war was fought between the British army and the king of Mysore Tipu Sultan, who was defeated and the fort was captured. This… Read more »
The great-grandson of Aurangzeb is best known for setting a series of unfortunate events in motion. Thanks to Muhammed Farrukhsiyar’s tenuous hold on the throne of the empire, his reign (1713 to 1719 CE) marked a crucial shift in power from the emperor to the court ministers or kingmakers. The ones in question here were… Read more »
Kanpur was the scene of a massacre after the city’s besieged occupants, including women and children, surrendered to the revlting natives on 27 June 1857. The recapture of the city then and the avenging of the massacre became a primary objective of the British officials. The city was retaken from the natives on 16 July… Read more »
This is an engraving depicting the shooting of Dr.Graham, an English medical officer who was shot while travelling in his horse-carriage and succumbed to his wounds. This print was inspired from the original illustration by Charles Ball, in his book “The History of Indian Mutiny”. The image depicts a horse-drawn carriage speeding through the landscape… Read more »
This should give you an idea of how powerful the Vijayanagara dynasty was: they changed the entire currency system in south India. It was the ruler Hari Hara II who impressed upon the administration the importance of collecting state revenue in currency instead of in kind. This led to the mass production of coins in… Read more »
This engraving is titled “Koor Singh, the rebel of ‘Arrah’ and his attendants – from a photograph”. It was first published in the Illustrated London, right after the Uprising of 1857. Kuwar (Koor) Singh was a local zamindar who led the revolt against the soldiers of the Bengal Military Battalion in a small outpost of… Read more »
This print is based on a portrait of Tipu Sultan, ruler of Mysore and hostile opponent of the British in late 18th century South India, in the possession of Richard Wellesley, Governor-General of India during the fourth, and final, Anglo-Mysore war of 1799. Masterminded by Wellesley, the 1799 campaign, which resulted in Tipu’s death and… Read more »
This is a hand-coloured engraving, detailing out one of the activities post the suppression of the Uprising of 1857. The print originally belonged to a larger 1857-Uprising related publications by the London Printing and Publishing Company. In this particular image, British officers are shown blowing the captured sepoys off canons. Two sepoys are tied to… Read more »