Acknowledgments

Aitken, Molly Emma

Save Cite Share

Free

Acknowledgments

Molly Emma Aitken

The Intelligence of Tradition in Rajput Court Painting

~My thanks, first of all, to the City College of New York and Dean Fred Reynolds, Cynthia Polsky, and the Millard Meiss Publication Fund of the College Art Association for their financial support of this project. The book is dedicated to Bannu ji, my first teacher in India. I would also like to remember his wife, Deepa, one of the warmest and most generous women I...

Author

Molly Emma Aitken

PublisherYale University Press

Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-21141

Acknowledgments

My thanks, first of all, to the City College of New York and Dean Fred Reynolds, Cynthia Polsky, and the Millard Meiss Publication Fund of the College Art Association for their financial support of this project. The book is dedicated to Bannu ji, my first teacher in India. I would also like to remember his wife, Deepa, one of the warmest and most generous women I have ever known. My thanks also to Bannu’s children, Virendra, Shammi, and Sushma, for their humorous patience and for introducing me to many of my favorite things Indian. It is with Bannu’s family that this book began. It also began with the two people who first set me on the path to India in 1992, Craigen Bowen and Stuart Cary Welch. Sadly, both passed away this past year; they will not see the results of the adventure on which they launched me.

My deepest thanks to Vidya Dehejia, who mentored me at Columbia University, for her continued support of this project and my career. She urged me to pursue questions many others discouraged me from investigating. Thanks to her faith in my ambitions I have written the book I wanted to write. Vishakha Desai, president of the Asia Society, has also been an important mentor. Her probing scholarship on Rajput court painting has inspired me, and her support has been invaluable. At Columbia University, David Freedberg, John Stratton Hawley, and Keith Moxey have contributed their time and thoughts to the progress of this work, and I thank them as well. Debra Diamond is my saheli in all things Rajput painting: my thinking on the topics discussed here evolved over years in conversation with her, and I would never have gotten to this point without her. Shanane Davis introduced herself to me shortly before I finished this manuscript, but she has taught me many things in a short time. Her business partner, Gajendra Chauhan, was also very helpful. In addition, Deborah Hutton and Tamara Sears have offered many useful comments and professed to like what I was doing at the moment when I most needed compliments. On a number of occasions, Catherine Glynn Benkaim kindly went through her collection and sent images she thought relevant to my arguments—her suggestions were excellent, and I have reproduced a number of paintings from her collection. I also thank the following colleagues and collectors for showing me paintings and/or helping me acquire reproductions and permission rights: Rosemary Crill, Anuradha Ghosh-Mazumdar, Sandhya Jain-Patel, Darielle Mason, Jagdish and Kamla Mittal, Sonya Quintanilla, Gursharan and Elvira Sidhu, and Andrew Topsfield. A special thanks to Milo C. Beach for opening his image library to me, for sharing the manuscript for his book Bagta and Chokha before it was published, for supportive comments, for sending me a variety of reproductions, and for otherwise kindly putting up with importunate queries.

In the course of my research in India, a number of people went out of their way to assist and teach me. The staff at the Rajasthan State Archives in Bikaner was zealous in helping me locate and read useful documents. In particular, I thank Dr. P. C. Johiya for guiding me through the archive collections and patiently teaching me to read Rajasthani court documents. I also thank Naval Krishna for showing me paintings in the Mehrangarh Fort and Umaid Bhavan collections and for helping me read archival materials. Tanvir Ahmed, curator of the Government Museum, Udaipur, readily opened the museum collections to me, showed me manuscripts pertaining to my research, facilitated photography of images I wished to study further, and spoke with me often and at length about my project. Yaduendra Sahai, director of the City Palace Museum, Jaipur, helped guide my studies before I went to graduate school, when I was living in Jaipur. He shared with me his library, the Shri Raj Rajeshwari Research Library (Dr. Durga Sahai Foundation), and pointed me toward the archival materials in Bikaner. I also express my gratitude to Rajendra Joshi for discussing this project with me, to Brijmohan Jawaliya, who tutored me in Rajasthani and guided my translations, and to Mr. Sankhala at the Rajasthan State Archives, Udaipur Branch, where I spent many a pleasant hour poring over the Mewar paintings inventory. Thanks also to Dilip Surana for his help and forbearance when we crossed cameras in Kotah and Bundi.

I have been able to visit several private collections in India and am thankful for the opportunities I was given to study their contents. I am grateful to His Highness Maharana Arvind Singh for his hospitality, generous assistance, and permission to photograph murals in the City Palace, Udaipur. My thanks also to Rawat Nahar Singh of Deogarh, who let me examine several paintings in his home, which turned out to be crucial pieces in my research puzzle. He also permitted me to tour the Deogarh Fort and photograph murals at my leisure. I enjoyed a stimulating discussion with His Highness Maharaja Brajraj Singh of Kishangarh, who had a number of paintings laid out for my perusal, and I spent a long and fruitful afternoon poring through boxes of paintings at the home of Raghuraj Singh of Badnore. I would also like to thank His Highness Maharao Brijraj Singh of Kotah for his kindness and for greatly facilitating my research in Kotah. Rajendra Singh Khudala made many of these contacts possible. My thanks to him and to his wife, Gita, for offering such a comfortable haven during my research in Udaipur. My thanks also to Brigitte Singh for her friendship and hospitality in India: because of her, my memories of research are scented with garden flowers and rich with beautiful patterns. William Bissell has also been a great help and friend in my research expeditions.

I owe the most to my husband, Qasim Zaidi, who has done more for this book than anyone else. He has read countless drafts, made reams of insightful comments, persuaded me to drop useless jargon and cherished, muddled phrases, patiently listened to more monologues on the subject than any busy scientist should have to tolerate, lugged heavy books and papers on too many vacations (even over the Alps in an underpowered car), and at the end of the day, still liked his wife. Of course, he was not the only family member who endured. Thank you to my parents, who read drafts and offered excellent editorial assistance. And thank you to my daughter, Ayla Zaidi, for her patience and for making me happy when I am tired. I have been working on this book for half of her life, and she tells me she thinks it is time I finish. And now I have.

Previous chapter

Base text size -

Chapter images ()