In vision
Jan Morris
Visions of Courtly India W. G. Archer (Sotheby Parke Bernet Publications E10.00)
You may be forgiven if you don't much care for miniatures; and excused if you don't know what Pahari means; but you must be a boor indeed if you are not charmed and fascinated by this book of Pahari miniatures. Written by one of the world's greatest authorities on them, it is in effect a catalogue raisonne of the author's own collection, begun when he was a young district magistrate in the old Indian Empire, and it bubbles with an exhilarating combination of learning, enthusiasm and amusement—perfectly matching, as it happens, the pictures themselves, and staking an early claim, for me,
Spectator 16 April 197/ to the title of 1977's Happiest Book.
Even Dr Archer himself, Keeper Emeritus of the Victoria and Albert Museunt's Indian Section, did not always like Indian miniatures. Until 1941, he tells us, he be' lieved himself allergic to them, but he was cured at a stroke by a visit to a famous collection in Bihar, and at once began_with his wife Mildred, now an eminent art his' torian too—to buy them for himself. From this hobby developed his later profession; from love came forth learning; though the Archers have now passed their great collection to their children, specifically by itS possession, the author assures us, did he acquire his expertise.
He collected, in particular, Pahari
tures. The word comes from the Hindipahar, a hill, and refers to the autonomous State of the Punjabi highlands which, between the late seventeenth and mid-nineteenth cell' tunes, evolved an exquisite creative epitonle. in the art of small painting. Visions 01 Courtly India, which is the by-product of an exhibition of the Archer collection, contains eighty examples of the form, from fourteen courtly schools. Though half of them concern the legends of the Hindu pantheon, theY are of diverse styles, approaches and CO tents, and seen through the lens of Dr Archer's text, full of nuance and innuendo: Some are naturalistic, some almost surreal in their distortions; some respectful, solve mischievous, some alarming, some comic; nearly every one is worth examining al length, so unexpected are their details, con' ventions and symbolisms. Here, for instance, we see Krishna's right, arm surreptitiously groping for the touch ol a cowgirl, while his left arm dutifully el. braces his lover Radha. Here Rama's allies' the monkey-soldiers, supported by Peculia: bears, resolutely storm a thicket of man yellow, green and orange trees in search 0. the missing Sita. Here Baz Bahadur and hl mistress Ruptami ride as in a dream througne the night, while a great dog lopes hesici_ them and a page boy in diaphanous Wel! shoots cranes with a blue and yellow mate lock. A lonely lady lasciviously embraces 2` banana tree, a pair of pigeons couPling pointedly at her feet. All this Dr Archer explains with an jOrli fectious gusto and an enviable range :b.. adjectives. Those cypresses droop, he `',,,at serves, in token of wasted passion; angry sky matches the lover's jealous frenzrYci the upper band of white and blue is standaes Kahlur practice, while those wigglY be between the carpet stripes could onlY Mandi. Surprising analogies enter his T. S. Eliot, Picasso, John Conteh the bot. Prince Charles on the polo field. AP w; guished maiden is said to be encluri,litts gust of Kulu angst,' a singing girl exn1 'the vapid staidness associated with ma' members of her profession.' , The book, then, is a delightful surpbooN rise,' I enjoyed every Mandi wiggle of the
that and bless the moment Dr Archer, Patna evening long ago, decided he " miniatures after all.
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