The Masnad Mahal is Patiala’s answer to the Sistine chapel, and should in any reasonable world be a world heritage site unto itself.
On the upper walls unfurl scenes from the lives of the ten Sikh Gurus, painted in the Jaipur style but adapted from Lahori prototypes. Far more imposing, however, are the sweeping panels narrating the Rukmini Haran – Krishna’s abduction of Rukmini.
The paintings are particularly fascinating and art historian Kavita Singh notes that they compell us to “broaden our notion of what constitutes a ‘Sikh’ subject.”
The emphasis on Krishna serves a dynastic purpose. The Patiala Maharajas claimed Chandravanshi (Lunar Dynasty) descent and traced their ancestry to Yadu, the ancestor of Krishna.
The Sikh kings thus appropriated Krishna as their own progenitor, regarding him as the ideal noble and virtuous king, despite their allegiance to the Sikh panth. Lambah suggests this indicates “allegiance to an earlier faith with newer loyalties.”
A portrait of Patiala’s Sikh Maharaja Karam Singh is thus flanked by the figures of Krishna, Rama, Garuda, and Hanuman.
-Sam Dalrymple
To me it has nothing to do with Sistine Chapel and looks more like the Alhambra Palace. You can definitely see Arabic influences on the art style.
But it’s a wonder. It’s a shame it looks like it isn’t properly maintained and is in need of some serious restoration.
Wow, I definitely hadn’t heard of this one. oO
It does look like some serious restoration is in order, however. Or is it even available to tour?I haven’t thought too much about it, but I wonder if there’s a common cause between flowery design motifs seemingly covering every possible surface in classic interior architecture that spans… maybe from the Middle East to the Indian subcontinent. In Muslim tradition of course, the easy answer involves the prohibition against representing figures, but in the Sikh tradition, for example…?
Incredible historical sites are in tatters in this part of the world.
Understandable. Where I’m originally from, I don’t think it’s been much better, historically.
Oh, one other thing I wanted to add-- that the scale of this place is so personal, and charming!
Whereas, the thing about the Sistine Chapel and huge Gothic worship buildings like Notre Dame, is that they were built so damn hugely so as to become impersonal, making the individual feel like an ant in the scheme of things. Which of course was no mistake at all, even as it was completely contradictory to the original message. But that’s a long discussion, haha…
Yeah this particular site is smaller. Its bigger observed from the outside. Ofc not to the scale of Notre Dame ofc haha.
But for that you could take a look at Angkor Wat etc.
Punjab (home of the Sikhs) has had a significant Muslim population for the longest time, and Maharaja Ranjit Singh (first emperor of the Sikh empire) employed several Muslim artists (as did other contemporary rulers). Fun fact - most punjabis in the world are Muslim, since of the original Punjab about 2/3rds are in Pakistan and form the plurality of the population of what 250 million, and Indian Punjab has a much smaller population
And somewhat related is a colonel in Ranjit Singh’s court https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Gardner_(soldier) Born in Wisconsin, of Irish descent, he wore a Tartan turban. Punjab is a fascinating place
Thanks for elaborating! I guess it wasn’t clear to me that most Sikhs are Muslim. Wouldn’t the human figures in this building be problematic for them, though?
No no. Sikhs aren’t Muslim. Sikhs originate from Punjab and Sikhism is a Punjabi religion. But Punjab is mostly populated by Muslims anyways.
And yes geometrical artstlyes being big in the Muslim world is true and exactly due to the reason you mentioned.
agree / disagree with the above?
Sikhism and Islam are essentially exclusive in the modern world, but most Punjabis are Muslim. Punjabi here referring to the place of origin/language/culture of people.
This is going to be the last time I try to get the ‘two views’ matched up. Let me reiterate again-- I don’t know JACK SQUAT about this stuff.
It’s up to you, @bomibantai@lemmy.world and @snokenkeekaguard@lemmy.dbzer0.com to debate this stuff amongst your viewpoints, in your wisdom. If you so wish…
Buddy, idk how to explain this to you. Islam is a religion, like Sikhism. Punjabi is a language and culture. It’s like saying most Iranians are Muslim, but Zoroastrianism originated from Iran and (maybe ) today most Zoroastrians are Iranian. Op and I aren’t disagreeing.
Oh my didn’t even notice that this is from Sam’s book, I’m such a huge fan of his father!!!
Not from his book, his substack.
I have mentioned Sam and William Dalrymple a million times on this comm I think lol.
First someone recognised the name somehow
