Sunday, August 10, 2003		Heritage

Gainful glimpses of Sikh art at Lahore
Harbans Singh Virdi

A journey through Lahore, the cultural capital of Pakistan, is like a breathtaking lesson in history. Lahore is enduringly antiquated, yet progressively modern. It boasts of great monuments — the Badshahi Mosque (1673), the Jahangir Tomb (1637), the Lahore Museum (1864) and the Shalimar Gardens (1641) — all architectural ornaments of Lahore.

However, Lahore is not all about Muslims, monuments and mosques. Jis Lahore na wekhya oh jamiya nahin (One who has not seen Lahore is not born), so goes an old saying. Such is the lure of Lahore. No visit, especially of a Sikh, is complete, without a visit to Lahore Fort, which houses the Sikh art treasure. At this fort’s museum you come across the arms and ammunition used during the six Anglo-Sikh wars. Most of the objects of art had originally gone out of then the Panjab to England, where Maharaja Dalip Singh was exiled after the annexation of the state. It remained at his Suffolk home as a family treasure, which later his daughter, Princess Bamba Jindan, inherited and brought to Lahore. Princess Bamba later married an Englishman, Sourtherland, but died issueless at Lahore in 1957. She bequeathed the collection of paintings and objects d’ art to Pir Karim Baksh Supra of Lahore, who sold it to the Pakistan Government in the ‘60s.

The Bamba collection, as it is called, is of immense historical significance for the Sikhs as it throws light on the life and times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Dalip Singh and the Sikh durbar in Lahore. The collection consists of 18 oil paintings, 14 watercolours, 22 ivory paintings, 17 photographs, 10 metallic objects and other miscellaneous articles. The majority of paintings are done by European painters, among them August Schoefft, Leslie Poole Smith, Goldingham, Blakeney Ward, P.C. French, Paillet and Winterhalter.

Though the museum was closed the day I visited it, Maqbool Sahib, the caretaker of the museum, was kind enough to open it for me. One painting which immediately attracted my attention was the one done by August Schoefft. Though as a layman I boast of no great aptitude to appreciate art — my visits to art galleries in India being few and far between — the Schoefft painting, illustrating the durbar of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, overawed me with its mammoth size. Besides Maharaja Ranjit Singh and Dalip Singh, it depicts 55 characters, among them French and English generals, courtiers, bodyguards, a jewel carrier, a munshi and a horse dealer from Kandahar. However, conspicuous by their absence on this frame are the Maharaja’s foremost general Hari Singh Nalwa, Akali Phoola Singh as also Lehna Singh Majithia, father of Dyal Singh Majithia, who started The Tribune at Lahore in 1881. Lehna Singh Majithia was an astronomer in the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Whenever a European astronomer visited the court, it fell on Lehna Singh to dwell on the secrets of the universe.

Displaying a rare concern for preservation, the museum authorities have divided the whole 192" x 100" frame into six photos to make the study of each character easy.

No available book carries the names of all these characters anywhere, either in India or Pakistan, except at the fort museum, where each person has been identified by August Schoefft.

Schoefft was not alone in having attempted to draw the court of Ranjit Singh. In 1880, Mohammad Bakhsh Nakash of Lahore also made an oil painting depicting all nobles of the Maharaja’s court. But where it fell much short of Schoefft’s effort in terms of size, it also scored over the European’s painting in some respects. Though smaller in size and depicting fewer characters than the Schoefft painting, the Muslim painter’s work shows greater understanding of the royal court by including important courtiers like Hari Singh Nalwa, Akali Phoola Singh Nihang, astronomer Lehna Singh Majithia besides Princes Peshora Singh and Kashmira.

The next best painting in this collection is again that of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, drawn again by the gifted painter Schoefft. This painting shows the Maharaja seated on a red velvet cushion on a side of the Golden Temple. In front of the Maharaja stands an attendant holding an umbrella. Opposite him are seated three persons reciting the Guru Granth Sahib, placed on high velvet cushions.

The museum also has a plaster cast of the marble bust of Maharaja Dalip Singh done by Baron Marochetti on the orders of Queen Victoria. A silver model of Ranjit Singh riding an elephant is exquisitely finished.

These paintings and other objects of art make for an interesting study of Sikh art.