Organizer: Allison R. Busch, Columbia University
Chair: Kumkum Chatterjee, Pennsylvania State University
Discussant: Catherine E. B. Asher, University of Minnesota
The history of South Asia from the 16th to 18th centuries is typically dominated
by the Mughal empire and focused on themes such as the expansion of the Mughal
polity, its administrative institutions, and its political culture, with findings
derived primarily from textual sources in Persian and European languages. Increasingly,
there is a growing recognition of the value of more interdisciplinary work that
focuses on perspectives from the periphery rather than the center. This panel,
a collaboration among scholars in the fields of art history, literature, and
history, puts regional cultural production at the very center of its inquiry.
The Mughal empire loomed large on the horizons of early modern India and the
regional perspectives advanced by this panel must inevitably engage with the
Mughal presence. Yet there were other widely influential trans-regional formations,
like Rajput cultural and political networks and Vaishnavism, that put their
stamp on the artistic production of the day. We are particularly interested
in regional courts, which not only took cues from the Mughals but also engaged
in their own spheres of cultural choice. Allison Busch looks at the widespread
use of Brajbhasha literature, which originated in Vaishnava contexts, in both
Mughal and Rajput court contexts. Papers by Kumkum Chatterjee and Jennifer Joffee
bring fresh insight into theorizations of the development of court arts in 17th
and 18th century Bishnupur and Mewar, respectively. The contribution by Debra
Diamond tracks the emergence of new painting trends and viewing practices in
18th-century Marwar as Mughal authority diminished. A central thematic of all
the papers is how Mughal, Rajput, and Vaishnava trends intersected and took
on new local inflections.
Allison Busch, Columbia University
Brajbhasha literature is a valuable site for exploring the interplay between
a range of regional and transregional processes in the formation of the court
cultures of early modern India. The language came to prominence in Vaishnava
circles during the 16th century, achieving its spectacular popularity in part
by drawing on the local lore of a particular region; the Braj mandal centered
at Mathura and Vrindavan. Cultural flows of the period did not allow Braj to
remain a local phenomenon, however. The Mughals, based at nearby Agra, were
major patrons of Brajbhasha literature and music. Far-flung Rajput rulers, in
many cases staunch Vaishnavas themselves, were keen to tap into both the spiritual
and cultural cachet of Braj, sponsoring both new works of poetry and paintings
of famous Braj poems. As new participants in courtly life, Brajbhasha writers
began to serve a range of elite clientele in the heartland, but also further
afield in the Deccan and Bengal, articulating a range of religious, political,
and intellectual concerns consonant with the cultural needs of the day. This
paper explores broad patterns of exchange in the literary and artistic circles
of Northern India, with a particular interest in the special nexus of Vaishnava,
Rajput, and Mughal cultures.
Kumkum Chatterjee, Pennsylvania State University
The principal aim of this paper is to illustrate the complexity, circulation,
and intersection of cultural traditions in South Asia during the 17th and
the 18th centuries. While Mughal imperial culture certainly played a significant
role in the shaping of elite, courtly culture in various parts of India,
its interaction, combination, and, in cases, modification by other co-existing
cultural traditions, particularly at the regional level, has received a lot
less attention from South Asianist historians in particular. This paper will
study a remarkable cultural efflorescence that occurred under active royal patronage
in the kingdom of Bihsnupur in south-western Bengal during the 17th and 18th
centuries. This cultural efflorescence, manifest in the emergence of a distinct
school of music, manuscript production and illumination, representations of
courtly life on temple walls, etc., represented a complex intermingling of Mughal,
Rajput, and Vaishnava cultural elements. This unusual and fascinating cultural
mélange was
made possible by the unique historical connections of this kingdom. This
phenomenon also represented the attempt of a lineage of hitherto obscure rulers
to appropriate and assimilate aspects of what was perceived to be a cosmopolitan,
Northern Indian aristocratic cultural style, which, however, needed to be counterbalanced
by a careful and strategic selection of local/regional cultural motifs and
traditions.
Jennifer Joffee, Inver Hills College
Until recently, the study of imperially-sponsored art and architecture of
many Rajput kingdoms was largely defined in terms of the degree to which
it exhibited the influence of the Mughal empire. The court arts of the Kachhwahas
of Amber, the first Rajput house to recognize Mughal sovereignty and serve
at the Mughal court, typically have been considered to possess a great affinity
to Mughal arts; conversely, the court arts of the Sisodias of Mewar, the
last Rajput house to grudgingly capitulate to the Mughal empire in 1615, have
often been described as the most unaffected and purely Rajput. This interpretation
is much too simplistic; close examination of the art and architecture of
Mewar reveals complex combinations of forms, styles, and ideas that incorporate
Mewari traditions with an assortment of other Rajput and Mughal elements and
ideologies. Additionally, Vaishnavism (specifically the Pushti Marg sect) and
the Sisodia claim of descent from Rama play a significant role in the court
arts of Mewar. In this paper, I examine the ways in which the imperially-sponsored
art and architecture of 17th- and 18th-century Mewar reflect a rich and sophisticated
amalgamation of various Rajput, Mughal, and Vaishnava elements that reveal
a unique cultural synthesis. Furthermore, I contend that this cultural synthesis
was, in part, deliberately created to bolster Mewar’s image in the eyes
of other Rajput houses that had long been thriving under Mughal rule and to
reassert the Sisodias’ self-proclaimed position as the foremost Rajput
dynasty.
Debra Diamond, Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution
During the second half of the 18th century, as Mughal political and cultural
authority diminished, Vaishnava devotionalism and regional relationships transformed
court culture in Marwar. Maharaja Vijai Singh (1752-1793), an initiate of the
Vallabha Sampraday, patronized monumental manuscripts of the Raslila and Ramcharitmanas.
These previously undiscovered paintings reject the intimate scale and secular
subject matter of the early 18th century for grand visions of epic landscapes
and celestial realms. The creation of a new manuscript format that was meant
for collective viewing and the substantial growth of the painting atelier will
be discussed in relation to the maharaja's admission into a cohort of royal
Vallabha devotee-patrons, his
collection of bhakti poetry, and the performative nature of the source texts.
The dual address of grand paintings depicting Ramrajiya, which invoke the Mughal
imprimatur within a Vaishnava frame, will be addressed through a consideration
of Vijai Singh's political and cultural alliances and affinities.
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