Royal Paintings of Jodhpur

Two hundred years ago, the little Indian kingdom of Marwar, in what is now Rajasthan, was a bloodsoaked and troublesome place. The long decline of the Mughal empire encouraged squabbles in the Hindu ruling dynasty; in 1751 an upstart second son, Bakhat Singh, came to power, having murdered his father the maharaja a quarter-century earlier. But the upheavals brought with them a creative revolution. Over the next century and a quarter, Marwar produced some of the most colourful, strange and shocking art on the subcontinent.

Bakhat Singh swept aside Marwari artists’ decorous imitations of Mughal miniatures. His artists were set to work on murals and large panel paintings showing the maharaja frolicking in palace courtyards and gardens with the ladies of his zenana, or harem. There is no hint of the bloodshed and instability that surrounded Bakhat Singh, who ordered himself portrayed not as a regal warrior, but as Marwar’s pre-eminent lover… When Bakhat Singh’s son Vijai Singh took the throne in 1752 (his father having been poisoned by a vengeful niece), Marwari art abandoned sex for devotion. Vijai Singh was highly religious, but his taste in art was anything but austere. His atelier in Jodhpur was ordered to create yet another new genre of painting: giant illustrations of episodes from the great Indian religious texts, to be displayed as poets recited the accompanying verses. The dizzying detail was intended to draw viewers into the direct contact with the divine sought by devotees of Krishna.

… The golden age of Marwari painting came to an end at the hands of the East India Company. In 1843, the expansion of British power forced Man Singh to relinquish his throne, and he withdrew to live as an ash-smeared yogi in a tent in Jodhpur. The power of the Naths was shattered, Man Singh’s atelier atrophied, and his heretical paintings were locked away in a Jodhpur fort, where they were recently rediscovered. Their first trip to this country is a rare chance to discover a long-forgotten tradition that Britain’s colonial ambition destroyed.

Text by Rachel Aspden. This collection is currently exhibited at The British Museum.