KOTAH, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, CIRCA 1835-40

This remarkably large-scale painting shows Maharo Ram Singh II of Kota in a large procession. Ram Singh ruled Kota from 1828 to 1866. Politically his rule was one of turmoil as the British increasingly interfered with the politics of the state but despite this he remained an incredibly active patron of the arts and perhaps the last great patron of Rajasthani court painting. Rather than illustrations to traditional texts, Ram Singh was much more interested in recording his own day-to-day exploits and a large corpus of painting remains depicting the Maharao hunting, at court and, as here, in large processions. Many of the works produced under Ram Singh are notable for their large scale however very few are anywhere near as large as the present lot.

The Maharao rides an elephant in a luxurious golden howdah fitted with a golden parasol. Soldiers march around him carrying spears, swords and guns. Behind the front group is a red palanquin. Following this are rows of cavalrymen and a line of caparisoned elephants. Damage in the lower right section of the painting obscures the tail end of the procession which looks to be figures mounted on camels. It seems likely that the procession is entering the city of Kota with the ramparts matching those that can still be seen in Kota today. The gateway shown corresponds most closely to the Kishor Pura Darwaza which would mean that the Chambal River is depicted in the lower left corner.

A painting of Ram Singh II riding in a procession with his son Chhattar Sal in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and dated circa 1850 shows the Maharao riding in a similar style of howdah and with a green nimbus (IS.564-1952). As here, the howdah is fitted with a gold parasol but in that painting it is silver rather than gold as we see in our painting. In the Victoria and Albert painting the Maharao appears older than in the present painting where he is more slender and his face more youthful in appearance. In this regard greater similarity can be found to a fragmentary drawing of another processional scene, also in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and dated circa 1830 (IM.56-1942). Another comparable portrait of the Maharao in the Gangore festival, formerly in the Stuart Cary Welch Collection, (Milo Cleveland Beach, Rajput Painting at Bundi and Kota, Zurich, 1974, fig.101) dated 1835, would suggest a similar dating for our painting.

Indian court painting on this scale is exceptionally rare but a small handful of examples are known from Kota which depict historical events mostly dating from the reign of Ram Singh II. A group of three large paintings on cloth depicting the events relating to the 1832 Ajmer Durbar are discussed by Joachim Bautze in his article 'The Ajmer Darbar of 1832 and Kota Painting', Journal of the Society of South Asian Studies, vol.6, 1990, pp. 71-91. One shows the reception of Lord William Bentinck by Maharao Ram Singh and Raja Madho Singh Jhala which was gifted to Bentinck and subsequently the Asiatic Society of Calcutta (ibid., figs. 2, 16, 18). A further two, both in the Rao Madho Singh Museum, Kota, are copies of contemporary originals. The first shows Bentinck being received by Ram Singh II (ibid., fig.9) and another showing Ram Singh being received by Bentinck (fig.7). Beyond this group, two large paintings on cloth are known. One is dated 1842-43 and shows Ram Singh visiting Bahadur Shah (Rao Madho Singh Museum Trust, 1003; illustrated Stuart Cary Welch, India, Art and Culture: 1300-1900, New York, 1985, no.285) and the second is a review of troops by English officers and Rajput Chiefs, also from the 1840s (Vinod Kanoria Collection, Patna). The painting of the visit to Bahadur Shah is much taller than our panting but notable for its depiction of Ram Singh's full processional entourage which is not dissimilar to that shown here. It is tempting to think that if that painting shows the beginning of the Maharao's journey home from Delhi, ours depicts the end of that journey.

The close relationship between mural painting and monumental works on cloth is evident in Kota. Several documented cloth paintings were later reproduced as palace murals, suggesting that compositions such as the present work occupied a space between court record and architectural decoration. Both of the previous two paintings on cloth discussed are reproduced as murals in the Kunwar Parda ka Mahal in Kota's Garh palace demonstrating the close relationship between the two forms of painting. The tradition of large cloth painting in Kotah predates the current painting demonstrated by a large painting of but others from this period, or earlier, may well have been lost. Some of the extensive wall paintings in the Kota palace can be dated to the turn of the eighteenth century (Mira Seth, Wall Paintings of Rajasthan, New Delhi, 2003, p.62) and relate to a large cloth painting of Maharao Duraj Sal hunting (r.1723-57) formerly in the Howard Hodgkin collection (Michael Brand, The Vision of Kings, Melbourne, 1995, no.86, p.127). This demonstrates that the tradition of large Kotah paintings on cloth predates the reign of Ram Singh II but beyond the architectural parallels these other works on cloth may not have survived. Large sections of the palace were repainted during the reign of Ram Singh II and contemporaneous to our painting. The names of two artists, Bahadur and Sri Bagas, are recorded as responsible for the paintings in the Raj Mahal which centre around scenes from the Bhagavata Purana in contrast to the more documentary scenes elsewhere in the palace. Our painting may be compared with processional and hunting scenes in the Bada Mahal, as well as paintings in the antechamber to the royal apartments, all of which demonstrate the same fascination with court ceremonial and the activities of the ruler.