The painted rooms of Kota Garh

When we arrived at the Rao Madho Singh Trust Museum in Kota on that November morning last year, I was taken aback to see the freshly whitewashed exteriors of the Museum building. I mean, why would a red sandstone structure be whitewashed over? The white is so blinding in the mid-morning sunlight that I had to shade my eyes to even look at it.

Travel, Rajasthan, Hadoti, Madan Singh Trust Museum, Kota Garh, City Palace, Painted Rooms, Palaces of Rajasthan, Museums of Rajasthan — *The Madho Singh Trust Museum in the Kota Garh or City Palace*

The Museum is located within the historic Kota City Palace or Kota Garh complex, which consists of many buildings, but none of the other buildings in the palace complex were whitewashed. In fact, the building next to the Museum has been spared the whitewash (except for the domes) and I was able to admire the intricate stone jaalis or lattice-work that covered the entire structure.

The building with the jaalis, however, was not open to the public, making me wonder if the whitewash was for the benefit of the visitors to the Museum, who (according to the website) visit it see its

rich collections of arms and armour, royal regalia and ritual paraphernalia, textiles and objets d’art, and world-famous miniature paintings and wall frescos.

As our group was entering the Museum, there was a moment of panic where I wondered if the interiors of the Museum have been whitewashed over as well, obliterating the wall paintings that I was most keen to see. But then just past the Elephant Gate (see header), I looked up and saw a gloriously painted ceiling (see photograph below) and I knew that all was well.

We spent almost two interesting hours at the Museum going through exhibits in the various galleries, and seeing the painted rooms. The galleries were dusty, poorly lit and not very well laid out. The information that accompanied the exhibits — arms, coins, banners, ganjifa cards, photographs, a vintage ice-cream machine, etc. — could at best be described as sketchy.

But the “world-famous miniature paintings and wall frescos” that filled up room after room over three floors, more than made up for what would otherwise have been a disappointing visit. And how! The sheer variety and brilliance of almost 300 years worth of paintings was a sensory delight and, to be honest, a bit of an overload too. The wall paintings, too, were sans any information whatsoever, but due to my familiarity with the subject of the paintings, I could recognise some of the themes. But there were an equal number of paintings that I couldn’t figure out and remain clueless about them till date. Of course, I have my guesses as to what they could be, but they remain just that. The Museum website gives some background information about the paintings, which I’m presenting in brief here, before taking you along to see the painted rooms of the Kota Garh.

Kota was part of the Bundi kingdom till 1624, when Rao Madho Singh (yes, the same king who gives the Museum its name), the second son of the ruler of Bundi, Rao Ratan Singh, declared independence. The Mughal Emperor Jahangir issued an imperial order validating the same in 1631. Thereafter, the rulers of Kota became allies of “the Imperial powers, be they the Mughal Empire, the Marathas, or the Honourable East India Company”.

Military campaigns took the rulers of Kota to as far north as the Balkh region in Afghanistan, and to the Deccan region in the South. In addition, Madho Singh was also appointed as the Mughal Governor of Burhanpur, which was also known as the gateway to the Deccan. The Kota rulers were often away for years on these campaigns and official duty, returning only occasionally to their kingdom.

An important outcome of these imperial services was that when the rulers returned to Kota after their military campaigns or after serving a particular office, they brought back with them not only new aesthetic sensibilities, but also artists to execute them at the Kota Garh. The result was the painted rooms at the Kota Garh exhibiting a beautiful pot pourri of styles and themes carried out from the mid 17th to the early 20th centuries.

From delicate Persianate style to the more robust Deccani to copies of Ravi Varma paintings to even a set of European style portraits; from mythological themes to hunting scenes to fantastical imagery; from pilgrim maps to cityscapes to mythical landscapes; from delicate colours and brush strokes to bolder use of colours — the painted rooms of the Kota Garh, which are spread over 3 floors, have it all.

There is no information on when each set of paintings and for me it turned into pure guess-work. It was easier to date some paintings more easily than the others. For example, the paintings of Shrinathji are all after 1738, for that is when the Kota rulers became followers of the Vallabha Sampradaya. Similarly, the European portraits are late 19th century after the coming of the British in the area.

Presenting a sampling of the art from the painted rooms of the Kota Garh. Clicking on any of the photographs below will start a slide show; you can use the arrow keys to navigate through the set, and once done, do come back to read the rest of the post.

Rows upon rows of palm sized miniature paintings in one of the rooms at Kota Garh.

Shiva and Parvati on their respective mounts. Don’t they look like they are off on a ‘ride’? Also, note how Ganga is depicted – as a face in Shiva’s matted locks and through whose mouth water flows.

A very unusual depiction of the Narasimha Avatar of Vishnu. Here Narasimha is not a lion, but a tiger and the demon Hiranyakashyapu is represented as a dog. Also in the frame are Prahlad, who is depicted as an adult instead of the young boy that he is, along with his mother.

Matsya Avatar of Vishnu. Here he is seen pulling the demon Hiranyaksha from a giant mollusc where he had hidden, while Brahma looks on.

One of the painted rooms in the Kota Garh has a continuous panel running across all walls depicting various forms of Shrinathji. This frame depicts just 3 of those forms

Krishna frolicking in a pool with his gopis

An elaborate landscape is painted in great detail here. In the centre is the depiction of Krishna, who after having stolen the clothes of the gopis is sitting in the tree, while the gopis entreat him to return their clothes.

The mythical Pushpak Vimana, bearing Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman to Ayodhya after the battle at Lanka

Vishnu reclining on Sheshnag, while Lakshmi and Garuda attend to him

Scenes from a boar hunt

And the poor tiger gets hunted and trapped in the net 😦

Off for a hunt. Notice the bird on the horse rider’s hand. It doesn’t look like a falcon, though that is what it must be, right?

Raja Ravi Varma style Gajalakshmi

Raja Ravi Varma style Dattatreya

Raja Ravi Varma style – Rama and Lakshmana getting lessons from Vishwamitra

Peoplegathered in the courtyard for a pooja.

A map of a city, perhaps Kota itself with the River Chambal flowing in the background. I love the bird’s eye perspective. Did the artist climb up a hill to get this view or did he imagine this

A royal procession. The king in the centre is definitely one of the rulers of Kota, but the little piece of inscription on the top is too tiny and too cramped for me to decipher.

A bejewelled nayika

“What shall I play tonight?” the musician seems to ask her friend

A series of paintings depicting raginis from the ragamala series. Except for a couple, I couldn’t identify any.

A lady holds on to the branch of a tree with red flowers (palash?). This is also a depiction of a ragamala – perhaps raga Vasanti, but I’m not sure.

One of the most recognisable depictions from the ragamala series of paintings – Ragini Todi.

What is this? A bird? A beast? a mythical creature comprising a peacock, elephant, cow, tiger, snake and a bird holding aloft what looks like a palace and giving a flower with a human had to a man with folded hands.

This was my favourite painting at the Kota Garh. I wonder who the blue yogi is, or his visitor who appears to be a king. Also, note how the peacocks are painted

A series of paintings depicting ‘Europeans’. I wonder who painted it? Was it an itinerant painted from Europe or was it a local painter who copied the style based on an available print?

While I enjoyed seeing the paintings and delighted over them, the visit also left me with many questions and thoughts. To begin with, the lack of information about the painted rooms and the paintings. I know that even some basic information about what the rooms were originally used for and the period the paintings were carried out would have gone a long way appreciating the importance of the paintings. All through the visit, I was keenly aware seeing the paintings without a context. The entire experience would have been so different, if only there was some information.

The big positive is unlike the painted rooms at Jhalawar, these are well maintained and in a far better condition. Well mostly, for there are sights like this !

As I mentioned earlier, the painted rooms are spread over three floors. The ones on the ground floor, adjacent to the museum galleries, are open and a visitor and see them easily. But there are no signs pointing towards the painted rooms on the first and second floors of the Museum. Visitors can visit the Museum and leave without even being aware of what they have missed. Our group would have missed it too, but were lucky thanks to the prior knowledge about the rooms. Mahijit ji, my host in Jhalawar, told me about the painted rooms and stressed that we would have to specifically ask for the rooms to be opened and shown to us. I passed on this information to Jayanti, our group leader, and she requested for the other rooms to be opened as well to which the museum attendants readily complied. I wonder if the rooms would have been opened if we had not asked for it? Somehow, I feel that the answer is “No”.

The silence and lack of information over the painted rooms is deafening and puzzling, particularly, if it is by the very Museum that is its custodian. Maybe, it is meant to discourage too many visitors for fear of damaging the paintings or maybe it could just not be a priority. I really don’t know.

But you will visit the painted rooms of Kota Garh, won’t you? In case you want further convincing, just look at the photo below. That’s me, documenting the paintings frame by frame in one of the painted rooms. What I have shared here is just a fraction, a sampling of the art I saw that day at the Kota City Palace. 🙂