Lucknow :

Narcissism omnipresent now in the form of ‘selfies’—pictures people click of themselves—was manifest in the form of portraits the high and mighty got painted of themselves for posterity. Nawabs of Avadh contributed immensely to the Company School of Painting, a genre of portraits during the British Raj, providing opportunity for many artists. They created vivid testimonies of the socio-cultural practices of the period.

The nawabs’ patronage to painters became a tradition. At a workshop in the city, Indian and Bangladeshi painters drew inspiration from ‘How nawabs patronised the palette’.

* Tilly Kettle’s Father and Son

Tilly Kettle (1735-86) was a portrait maker from London who traveled to India with the East India Company. He met Shuja ud Daulah in Calcutta where he painted his portrait and later accompanied him to Faizabad. He captured many facets of the aristocratic life but his most famous work was portrait of Shuja-ud-Daulah with his heir apparent Asaf ud Daulah. “The nuances of their work are remarkable. The intricacies as in the bejeweled ‘bajuband’ (armlet), and poise on the face of the two kings is an inspiration,” says Vipul Varshney, a city architect. Painters from Delhi such as Mir Kalan Khan also found refuge in Avadh with Mughal aristocracy declining.

* John Zoffany’s Cock-fight

The tradition of patronising painters was inherited by Asaf ud Daulah. This benevolent nawab is given credit for making Lucknow a subject for painters. The grandeur of his personality was captured on paper by Johann Zoffany (1733 – 1810), a painter of German origin and the work became a stencil for many local artists. Myraid representation of cock-fight match in the court of Avadh speaks volumes of the times. Claude Martin and another painter Ozais Humphery (of the Jane Austen portrait fame) are also in the picture. Later, Martin became a route for entry to the nawab’s court. Ozais made the painting of Haider Beg Khan (1786), a royal in nawabi court. The work, now in Victoria and Albert museums of London, showed that painters found clientele in people other than nawabs too.

* William Hodges, the first professional

Better known for a voyage to the Pacific Ocean, Hodges came to Avadh in 1778, under the patronage of Warren Hastings. He was one of the first British professional landscape painters to visit the country. He remained here for six years, staying in Lucknow with Claude Martin in 1783. His painting of (Fatehpur Sikri) is in Sir John Soane’s Museum. His depiction of the nawabi palace in Faizabad is noteworthy.

King Nasir-ud-Din Haider’s role

This nawab would be remembered more for promoting local artists. One of the paintings of the King with an English lady, probably the wife of Lord Bentinck, is quite striking. It shows the influence of British lifestyle on Avadh. A research work by Neeru Mishra has studied over 300 paintings on Krishna done by artist Ram Prasad who was known to be patronised by Nasir-ud-Din Haider, bringing to fore the nawab’s faith in the Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb.

Fusion of genres

Researcher Pran Neville has noted that Indian artists took the opportunity to work for their new British patrons, especially because the traditional patronage of Indian rulers and their courts was rapidly declining. “While adopting some features of Western art they took care to preserve traditional elements. Since their own skills were more than adequate, they did not need formal training from the British,” he writes. Scholars at Colombia University also noted that Zoffany was being imitated by local artists. One of his famous works, portrait of Nawab Asaf-ud-daulah, has seven versions besides the original.

Price of vanity

Getting a portrait made was a costly affair. Artists even advertised in newspapers to reach out to clients. One such advertisement that appeared in April 1798 was given by one lesser known artist named Morris. He charged 15-80 gold mohurs for different sizes such as bead size, three quarters, kit cat, half length and whole length. Zoffany charged Rs 2,500 from the wife of a British officer. “The well-to-do, in fact, were ready to spend any amount to get their portraits made for it was a fashion statement,” suggests Neville.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Lucknow / by Shailvee Sharda, TNN / November 02nd, 2014

The 154-year-old Mutthiganj Kalibari is a living testimony to the religious influence of Bengali Community in the Sangam City. Till recently the temple was a centre of ancient ritual of ‘tantrik puja’ on no-moon Diwali night. Goats were offered as sacrifice to Goddess Mahamaya. Though sacrifice is still performed but with a minor change – goat has been replaced with leafy sugarcane with roots.

However, despite abandoning of sacrifice, the Kalibari continues to attract hundreds of devotees from across the Northern India on the intervening night of Diwali. In order to cater to its devotees across the globe, the Kalibari has this year decided to telecast the puja ceremonies live on official website.

Allahabad Kalibari Maintenance Society secretary Arun Kumar Bannerjee said, “A decade back, mass sacrifice of goats was an integral part of Kalibari ritual. Rituals cannot be changed overnight in any religion and the sacrifice tradition was no exception. It took a few years to stop mass sacrifice.”

“Following consultations with renowned and noted priests, the animal sacrifice was replaced with sugarcane as part of the tradition,” he said.

“The offering of sugarcanes with roots and leaves, pumpkin and coconuts are offered as sacrifice on the night,” added Bannerjee, which is regarded as ‘symbolic’ sacrifice.

This year, the special puja of Goddess Mahamaya would start in Kalibari after the onset of no-moon-night at 8 pm while Mahapuja would start at 12 am on October 23 and continue till the moon changes its course early next morning. Pushpanjali, Havan and lighting the temple with 108 earthern diyas are the essential rituals.

Kalibari – the most popular temple during Diwali – was established by seer Krishnanand Brahmachari from undivided Bengal in 1860 as a part of his initiative to set up temples of Goddess Kali in every part of the country.

After establishing Kalibari in Peshawar and Lahore (now in Pakistan) along with 31 other places countrywide, the seer finally arrived in Allahabad which was a small town then. He established a small temple at Mutthiganj on a land donated by an employee in Collectorate Raas Bihari Ghosh and donated it to the Bengali Society of the city. Now Allahabad Kalibari Maintenance Society looks after the Kalibari.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Allahabad / by Vinod Khanal. TNN / October 22nd, 2014

Kolkata :

“It’s the only book I’ve read twice. And my favourite line is ‘life can’t be divided into chapters’,” mused Shahanshah Mirza, great-great-grandson of Wajid Ali Shah, referring to ‘The Last King in India’ by Rosie Llewellyn-Jones. The British historian has made waves by compiling facts about the legendary nawab whose memory still divides opinion.

Rosie smiled: “Thanks for helping me investigate the mind of the last king. The British opposed him because they wanted to take his kingdom. Mirza nodded: “You’ve dealt with his seclusion rather well.” He thought the agony associated with the annexation of Awadh is well portrayed in the book.

Rosie begins with a chapter following this act, when the nawab’s mother travels to petition Queen Victoria for justice. Unknown to her, the Queen had no power to return Awadh. The bleak start sets the tone for the book — the British duplicity, with the king caught between forces over which he had no control.

For inputs, Rosie has watched ‘Shatranj Ke Khilari’ “several times”. “Ray did a lot of research,” said Rosie. “When Ray met my father in 1978, he was asked if it was easy getting Amjad Khan into Wajid’s skin. He had said ‘Amjad was blinking a lot. When a ruler is angry, he doesn’t blink. His eyes are wide open’,”
said Mirza.

Rosie’s Kolkata connect goes a long way — since she found Mirza on the royal family website in 2004. “I came here and we did a lot of research together,” she said. The cover is a painting of the nawab which belongs to Mirza’s relative Sultan Ali Sadiq.

Rosie pointed out: “In nearly all his pictures, the king has his left breast exposed.” Mirza explained: “I guess the poet in the nawab wanted to show that his heart was always open.”

The book will be unveiled for the third time on Sunday after a London launch in June followed by another such ceremony in the nawab’s very own Lucknow last month. “Now it is Kolkata’s turn and we had to have Shahanshah,” said Rosie. Mirza has given Rosie inputs on the king settling down in Metiabruz (or Metiaburj, which literally means a clay tower). An old watchtower had once stood there, guarding the Hooghly river bend, giving the place its name.

“The book shows that even 127 years after his death,
Wajid Ali Shah, who himself authored 117 books (Rosie found some of them at the London Library), is still a subject of interest.”

The king contributed greatly to Kolkata’s culture. Kathak and kite-flying were introduced by him. He opened a menagerie which attracted a lot of visitors. According to Rosie, the king tried, within his limited resources (he had to live off a pension given to him by the British), to recreate a miniature Lucknow in Garden Reach-Metiabruz where he lived his last 31 years. He brought with him the music, the poetry, the cuisine, the adab that had made Lucknow under him the byword of culture and etiquette.

“His Calcutta stay changed many aspects of its social life. The British failed to fathom (deliberately) the love that he enjoyed from his subjects,” said his great-great-grandson.

The British, who deposed him to Calcutta in 1856, could hardly accept a ruler who believed that his subjects singing his songs was enough guarantee that he was seen as a good ruler. “Do Queen Victoria’s subjects sing her songs?” Satyajit Ray makes Wajid ask his chief minister in ‘Shatranj Ke Khilari’, thus capturing the differing notions of kingship.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Kolkata / by Ajanta Chakraborty, TNN / October 12th, 2014

While preparing for Thursday’s ‘Swatch Bharat’ campaign, the Department of Post recently stumbled upon century old records hidden beneath stacks of files in its store room. The archival documents, throwing light on the functioning of postal services in the British regime, were in a dilapidated state.

The officials and the public have so far been oblivious to the existence of such records that have academic interest. As the officials went through the records maintained in English, Hindi and other languages, they were surprised to find many unknown facts, including the one that malaria drug ‘quinine’ as earlier used to be sent through post offices.

The document says, “Quinine is almost finished. There is a stock of only two packets. The branch master should write to assistant director, public health malaria, Lucknow for new supply.”

Similarly, records dated January 24, 25 and 26, 1905 and signed by the then Post Master General of United Provinces of Agra and Oudh (border almost identical to present Uttar Pradesh) says, “The horses of Allahabad are the best I have seen in this circle. Most of them are in very god condition, but some are thin. Post Master has prepared a statement which shows that some of the horses are overworked.”

He wrote that he want a similar statement from Cownpore, Lucknow and Agra after which he would take any action.

Further during the inspection, the then British Post Master General found plague had hampered the work in the city and the number of absentee in the office had also increased affecting the work.

The document reveals that Allahabad had earlier been the focal point of business transaction among others. Now the officials have decided to maintain and preserve the records.

“The swatch bharat abhiyan was a blessing in disguise as we got rare records related to postal services in Allahabad circle. The service of the circle was termed as the best by the then Post Master General. At present the records and documents running into several pages are being studies and will be preserved,” said KK Yadav, director postal services, Allahabad region.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / Home> City> Allahabad / by Vinod Khanal, TNN / October 01st, 2014