By Raju Mansukhani

Through 2023 and 2024, India witnessed high-profile visits of heads of state and foreign ministers from Greece, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Cambodia, and Korea, beside the G20 Summit which literally brought the entire world to New Delhi. Every handshake, every smile exchanged between the leaders was symbolic of centuries-old ties between India and the visiting nations; not just trade, commerce which thrived but the profusion of art and culture which emerged from people-to-people interactions.

To commemorate International Museum Day on May 18, it is befitting to celebrate the interconnectedness between cultures and civilizations lasting for thousands of years, paying tributes to the modern institutions and professionals who made a difference with their efforts.

‘Roots & Routes’, the exhibition at New Delhi’s National Gallery of Modern Art from September 2023, presented India’s civilizational expressions through archaeology, literature, numismatics, epigraphy and paintings.

Said the curator Raghvendra Singh, former Secretary Government of India, Ministry of Culture, “we were engaged with G20 priorities of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the core values of which are supremely universal.” Be it respect for nature, environment, democratic spirit, gender equality, the themes were connecting the G20 countries and charting out the ‘routes’ through which these cultural legacies moved through different geographies.

Young visitors could marvel at the sculptures from Gandhara, almost 2000 years old, showing the impact of Greek, Roman, Iranian art on the glorious works produced, primarily depicting scenes from Lord Buddha’s life. Sculptures, paintings, and murals are indicative of how Buddhism was spreading across Asia.

India’s oldest and finest museums today are collaborating on several projects. ‘Roots & Routes’, for example, brought together National Museum, New Delhi; Indian Museum, Kolkata; Government Museum, Chennai; Government Museum, Chandigarh; Government Museum, Mathura; National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi; Indira Gandhi Center for Arts, New Delhi; the site museums of Archaeological Survey of India at Sarnath, Nalanda, Nagarjunakonda and Sanchi; Asiatic Society, Kolkata; and the National Library, Kolkata.

Dr Savita Kumari, who co-curated ‘Company Painting: Visual Memoirs of nineteenth-century India’, explained, “The collection we displayed at the National Museum in 2022 was extremely valuable. For the first time, six premium institutions came together to bring forth the finest specimens of the Company Painting in the public domain. So far, the collection of the Botanical Survey of India was studied for its scientific value. Its aesthetic merit as artworks were highlighted for the first time during this exhibition.”

Moreover, the cross-cultural influences abound in Company Paintings, as detailed by Dr Savita, associate professor and head-History of Art at Indian Institute of Heritage (formerly NMI). It was an age when “European traveler artists flooded the Indian art scene from the mid-eighteenth century and introduced new vocabulary to Indian artistic traditions. Indian artists got a chance to study their work and learn the requirements of new patrons from their work. For example, Governor-General Warren Hastings provided patronage to British artists William Hodges and Tilly Kettle and the Bengal artist Sita Ram. There is an exemplary representation of Qudsia Bagh Palace, which is a copy of the work of the British artists Thomas and William Daniell.”

In Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya (CSMVS) the show-stopper currently underway through 2023-2024 is ‘Ancient Sculptures: India Egypt Assyria Greece Rome’, a transcontinental endeavour bringing together long standing partners – CSMVS, The J. Paul Getty Museum, and British Museum, and for the first time, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, along with museums from India – National Museum, New Delhi; Bihar Museum, Patna; and Directorate of Archaeology, Archives and Museums, Government of Madhya Pradesh, to showcase magnificent works of art from the ancient world.

Explained Dr Sabyasachi Mukherjee, director general – CSMVS, “the Ancient World Project is part of Getty’s Sharing Collections effort, which aims to promote a truly global understanding of the ancient world.”   

Neil MacGregor, advisor to the Getty on the Sharing Collections project, and celebrated scholar-head of British Museum and National Gallery in London, said, “These are new partnerships for the ancient world.”

In the exquisitely-produced exhibition catalogue, MacGregor wrote, “Sculptures gathered in the rotunda of CSMVS Museum come from many different cultures and tell many different stories. But they come together for one common purpose: they aim to allow visitors, especially students, not just to admire and enjoy great works of art but to think afresh about the complex links between India and the rest of the world over more than three thousand years ago.”

The core idea, emphasized Dr Mukherjee, behind this project was to understand India’s position in the ancient world. The sculptures on display are from Greece, Rome, Egypt and Assyria and are seen alongside the CSMVS’ permanent Indian Sculpture Gallery which highlights the three ancient philosophies of India: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. “It illustrates the continuing religious sculptural traditions of India’s rich, complex and living heritage,” said Dr Mukherjee, drawing attention to the deep contact which India had with West Asia for over three thousand years.

Visitors come face to face with Aphrodite, the Greed goddess gracing the exhibition and paired with Yakshis; there is the Lion’s Head from the Temple of Artemis, along with Sekhmet and Narasimhi depicting the animal attributes in the divine; the powerful triptych of Zeus, Apollo and Dionysos; Greek vases and stone reliefs from Gandhara are displayed; and rivers of the ancient world are presented through Hapy and Ganga. The Yajna Varaha, incarnation of Lord Vishnu as the Boar, represents the cosmos and leads us through exhibits which continue to bring nations, cultures, communities, and people together.   

Said Dr Mukherjee, “our outreach initiatives, university programmes and CSMVS education services are designed in such a way that large number of young adults visit the exhibition and leave with a new understanding not only of Indian history in the context of the ancient world but also of their own proud place within it as citizens of the world.”

 (From left): Aphrodite (Greek) or Venus (Roman): Goddess of love and passion, c 150 CE. From the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. (centre) Surasundari: From Khajuraho, 10th century CE. From Indian Museum, Kolkata. (right) A Tribal Woman/Courtesan from Tamil Nadu, Company Painting. From the National Museum, New Delhi.

Yajna Varaha – Boar Incarnation of Lord Vishnu. c 900-1099 CE. From Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh. District Archaeological Museum, Government of Madhya Pradesh.

Dr Savita Kumari, Associate Professor and Head of the Department of History of Art, Indian Institute of Heritage (formerly NMI)

Photo courtesy: CSMVS, Mumbai; Ministry of Culture

The author is a writer-researcher on history and heritage issues, a former deputy curator of Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya.

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