Maharaja

Maharaja Exhibit

We saw an Indian exhibit of Maharaja at Field Museum yesterday. The display was from the period between 1700 and 1800 during when British Raj took over from East India Company. This was the period when Hindu Rajas and Maharajas were manipulated by Britishers into becoming puppet rulers. These must have been petty kings. They were not considered Kings and thus were not accorded due deference by Britishers. Some kings were rebels but their rebellion did not last very long. Also many of the kings were from Mewar and Southern India whose names I had not heard before.

I was mistaken in thinking that this exhibit would include Moghal Emperors ' cache also. But I should have known better. With a name like "Maharaja" it cannot include glory of "Badshahs". Hindu kings were Maharajas, and Muslim were Badshahs. Some small muslim rulers were also known as Nizams and /or Nawabs.

There were only about 200 plus peices of exhibits, mostly paintings with some jewllery, furniture, saries, thrones, musical instruments etc. While I did not expect it to be so, it should have had many more pieces  for display. The two dimentional paintings were mostly of Durbars, Royal Courts and Royal hunts.

With a long history, a rich and interesting one no less, India has never developed a sense of collective history and therefore no sense of preservation. The United States of America on the other hand which has only two hundred plus years' history is enormously conscious of preserving things. Michelle Obama's 2013 inauguration gown will be preserved for posterity to see sometime in the future!

They were playing beautiful music on a CD. It was called Collection of Traditional Indian Lullabies-Vatsalyam- by S. Jayashri. I would have bought it but they were sold out. While I did not find it on YouTube I am inserting here a very soft and soothing lullaby.