The History Collective, New Delhi

The History Collective is proud to announce our new page. Some of you may have attended our events, or may be following us on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/the_history_collective/)

Now you can follow this page to keep up with The History Collective's events, as well as to read interesting posts written by historians, and see some of the work being done in the field of history.

Coming soon

Our National Museum in Delhi is to be demolished. Its collections, those on display and in reserve, will go into storage for an indefinite period. While we have anxieties surrounding the processes of transfer and rehabilitation of the artefacts, we are also sad that we may not be seeing our beloved objects for a long time, and uncertain about which may or may not come back into display. At the same time we remind ourselves how the National Museum, in the way it was conceptualised and built, is an important legacy of India in the years after Independence.

We in The History Collective would therefore like to share some of our favourites from the National Museum with the larger public. Follow 'Treasures of the National Museum', on this page and our Instagram handle, where we will be sharing objects and stories from the museum.

The Series 'Treasures of the National Museum' cannot begin without talking about the structure itself and the legacy that it carries.

The act of erecting the 'National Museum' was of great importance as it not only symbolised a visible assertion of the newly-gained sovereignty but also an act of decolonisation. It was a site for Indian nationalism's experiments with modernity, spearheaded by Jawaharlal Nehru. While the idea of the National Museum was floated at the dawn of Independence, the construction of the building took some time and it was only in 1960 that the present day structure came into place.

Ganesh Bhikaji Deolalikar, the first Indian architect to head the CPWD who also designed the Supreme Court of India, was one of the people involved in creating early models of the National Museum.

Photo - Facade of the newly constructed National Museum, New Delhi, 1961.

Source: Saloni Mathur, Kavita Singh (eds.), No Touching, No Spitting, No Praying - The Museum in South Asia, Routledge, New Delhi, 2015.

The roots of a National Museum

The National Museum first took shape even before a dedicated building had been built, in the form of an exhibition of masterpieces of Indian art, collected from around the country. This temporary exhibition was inaugurated in the state rooms of Government House in 1948, not long after Independence. The exhibition proved to be very popular, which led to a demand that the collection form the core of a future national museum.

Government House was renamed Rashtrapati Bhavan in 1950, when India became a republic. The masterpieces of Indian art were eventually moved to the dedicated space of the National Museum, with two pieces left in Rashtrapati Bhavan, where they still stand as a memory of that time. One of them is a Gupta period statue of the Buddha from Sarnath, and the other is the Rampurva Bull – a monumental pillar capital from the Mauryan period, which can be seen in this photo.

(Source: Kavita Singh, ‘The Museum is National’, India International Centre Quarterly, Winter 2002-Sprng 2003; photo: The History Collective)

As one enters the National Museum, what immediately catches the eye of the visitor is the sheer number of stone sculptures on display.

The National Museum was not only a symbol of India's newly gained sovereignty, it also had the task of demonstrating the greatness of Indian civilization. It has been argued that the burden of this narrative inevitably fell upon one category of objects: stone sculptures. While these alone had survived so plentifully over centuries, their value was also in their resemblance 'atleast superficially' to Greek and Roman antiquity. These stone sculptures allowed Indian art enthusiasts to foreground the long lasting tradition of monumental stone sculptures and draw parallels with European civilization. If not greater, Indian civilization was equal to the European civilization. These developments should be seen in the context of attempts at critiquing the colonial understanding of civilization.

Photo - "Sculptures selected for the National Museum stored in the open air while the galleries were readied before the new building opened in 1961."

Source - Saloni Mathur, Kavita Singh (eds.), No Touching, No Spitting, No Praying - The Museum in South Asia, Routledge, New Delhi, 2015.

The story of the 'Dancing Girl'!

The journey through the National Museum begins with the first gallery dedicated to the Indus Valley Civilization. One of the most intriguing artefacts is a bronze sculpture (10.5 cm), made using the lost wax technique, depicting a n**e young woman with her right hand on the hip. Ernest Mackay discovered her from Mohenjodaro in 1926 and she was named the 'Dancing Girl' by John Marshall. The story of her travels to India is a very interesting one.

After the partition of India, there were many discussions about sharing of artefacts between the National Museum, New Delhi and the Lahore Museum. It is said that Pakistan asked for the steatite figure of the bearded male, popularly identified as the 'priest king' and India kept the bronze statue of the 'dancing girl'.

The bronze statue of the young girl kept in the National Museum, Delhi is not the only one. Gregory Possehl draws our attention to another similar statue found by Mackay from Mohenjodaro although it's not as well crafted as the former.

Do you really think she is a 'dancing girl'? What purpose do you think she served?

Photo - The History Collective, National Museum, Delhi
Source: John Marshall, Mohenjodaro and Indus Civilization; Gregory L Possehl - The Indus Civilization: A contemporary Perspective

Today in our series, Treasures of the National Museum, 'Ladies playing chaupar'.

This painting shows us three women, in various postures. Two are playing a game of chaupar, while the third leans over with a cup in her hand. The setting seems to be an open terrace with a low carved railing, and flowers outside. The leisure activity seems to be taking place at night, as there is a moon and stars in the sky. This was painted in Bundi, Rajasthan, around 1725-30 in the style called ‘neem-qalam’, a style that uses mostly line drawing, with minimal use of colour and large parts of the scene left empty.

Which elements in this treasure from the National Museum do you find intriguing?

Today in our series, Treasures of the National Museum

Chaupar

The game of chaupar has been played in India from very ancient times, though when exactly it began is uncertain. Abul Fazl, the chronicler of Akbar’s reign, wrote in the 16th century that the game had been played in India from olden times. Akbar himself was very fond of chaupar. The word ‘chau-par’ refers to the four arms of the cross shaped cloth mat on which it is played. This chaupar set from the National Museum collection includes a beautifully embroidered mat decorated with mirror work, made in the 19th century in Chamba, in Himachal Pradesh. The customary sixteen pieces and three dice, carved from jade, are from 19th century Rajasthan.

Have you ever played chaupar?

Do you know of any other moments in history where Chaupar played an important part?