A Date With the Maharanis of India

Bangalore-based Tasveer Art Gallery presents a stunning collection of photos of the Maharanis of Royal India.

Blue blood in black and white, need we say more?

This year at the India Art Fair, we saw a stunning collection of photos of the Maharanis of Royal India presented by Bangalore-based Tasveer Art Gallery.

The collection was a selection from their recently published book, Maharanis: Women of Royal India, in association with Mapin Publishing.

The prints of the photographs were sourced painstakingly from surviving royal family members, borrowed from museums like the V&A, and sourced from various archives, particularly the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Bangalore.

The idea behind this is simple – when we talk about erstwhile Indian princely states, the Maharajas assume centre-stage. But today, where we increasingly talk about gender, one feels the need to go back in time and take a look at India’s history with a lens that is inclusive of women. Essays in the book, including those by Pramod Kumar KG and Amin Jaffer, deal with this aspect in more detail.

During the course of their research, Shilpa Vijayakrishnan, editor of Tasveer Journal, found fascinating stories about these maharanis. Many, like Gayatri Devi, her mother Indira Devi, and Rani Sita of Kapurthala, were staunch supporters of women empowerment.

Gayatri Devi’s grandmother, Maharani Chimnabai of Baroda co-authored a book on government schemes about women. Through her efforts, Baroda also became the first princely state to abolish purdah. Even the Begums of Bhopal were actively engaged in politics and introduced a variety of schemes to uplift women. They were among first in the country to be legitimised as women monarchs under Islamic rule.

But the book isn’t just a celebration of royalty, Shilpa insists.

Many of these photographs were clicked in the mid twentieth century, just around the time when photographs were becoming more and more popular. And just in terms of the journey of photography, observing how people got photographed around that time, is an interesting thing to look at.

Shilpa Vijayakrishnan, Editor, Tasveer journal

In many ways, this collection isn’t just an ode to the past; it is an interlinking of the past with the present. The attempt establishes that these women should not only be remembered for their ceremonial roles, or the beauty and aura they exuded, but also for the bold choices they made.