ULWAR AND ITS ART TREASURES.* HERE is a superb volume
with a brief, suggestive history. The writer is the Residency Surgeon of Jeypore ; the work is pro- duced at the sole expense of the Maharajah of Ulwar, Sir Mungul Singh, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army; and it is published in Peckham, once an outlying village, now a
• Uhear and it; Art Treasures. By Thomas Holbein Headley. Burgeon-Major, Indian Department. Peckham : W. Griggs. part of London. Peckham thus becomes conspicuously con- nected directly with Ulwar, and indirectly with the mighty stream of Indian history, because it is the place where Mr. Griggs has established the workshops in which he prints such beautifully coloured plates as those illustrating this volume. They represent portraits, arms, jewelry, fabrics, battle-pieces, illuminated manuscripts, book-covers, and a curious state procession of the Emperor Akbar Shah II., made early in this century ; and they are admirable examples of what wonders can be done in chromo-lithography. There are also several photographs of views and buildings in Ulwar, a plan of the town, and a map of the State, only readable, alas, with a power- ful magnifying glass or a microscope. Taking the portraits, which are always the most interesting to the student, first must stand that of the reigning Maharajah, a typical Rajpoot face, bold and strong, tempered by a distinctly modern expression, perhaps the result of careful education—he was selected when still a minor—which differentiates it from the faces of his predecessors, among whom Pratap Singh, the founder of Ulwar, alone has the characteristic combination of craft and strength, the mingling of boldness and prudence, which marks his relatives, the Jeypore Rajahs. A certain impulsive peremptoriness, which closely borders on cruelty, is visibly indicated by the native portraiture of the earlier chiefs, and is not absent from the intellectual countenance of Sir Mungul Singh, who is, however, a man of business as well as a gentle- man. Next to these specimens of Rajpoot rulers, we may place the page which contains four portraits of the Timourides,—Baber, as frank and fearless as he was in life ; Humayoun, his son ; Akbar, broad, liberal, and resolute ; and Aurangzib, the most suggestive head of all, since it strikingly conveys the impression of his sleepless craft, narrow bigotry, and remorseless cruelty. Among the other plates, we may mention one of a lovely vase and stand of white jade, finely inlaid with gems ; a page from an illuminated copy of the Koran, and several delicious specimens of book-covers and backs, exquisite in design and colour. Besides these, there are excerpts from an illuminated copy of Saadi's Gulistan,—medallions, and figure-pictures, all of great beauty, the borders alone presenting an astonishing variety of graceful designs, and a surface of colour, rich yet subdued, which is one fascinating charm of the best products of Oriental art. The production of this work is all the more remarkable because the edition of the Gulistan was written out and illustrated to order, and the caligraphy and adornments are the works of the Delhi artists who lived only half-a-century ago. Banni Singh, then the ruler in Ulwar, paid several thousand pounds sterling for this work, which occupied the copyist and painters twelve years. The same chief also gave three hundred pounds sterling for the illuminated Koran. The contents of this volume amply justify the Maharajah in giving her Majesty's Western subjects some idea of the treasures which have been accumulated by his predecessors and lodged in the palace at Ulwar. Mr. Hendley is of opinion that none of the arts are indigenous in any Indian State, but that the artists come from all parts when they find patrons who are willing to provide leisure, pay, and honour.
Ulwar is a modern State, barely a hundred years old. In the last half of the eighteenth century, Pratap Singh, Rajah of MOzheri, carved it out of what was then Jeypore and the ancient Mewattee. In the great conflict with the Mahrattas, he knew how to take sides adroitly, and so he gained the town of Ulwar, together with much of the present State. Having no son, he adopted as a successor Bakhtawar Singh, a little boy who, when offered with three others the choice of toys, fastened upon a sword and shield,—an example of competitive examination not altogether uninstructive. The infant Rao Rajah, much beset by neighbours, justified the choice when he had grown to man's estate. He also had the wit to side with Lake in his fight with the Mahrattas, and Ulwar troops were present at Laswaree, which lies within the State border. Again the chief had no legitimate son to succeed him when he died in 1815, and Banni Singh, his nephew, was set up. He is the gentleman who developed such a taste for art that from him come the chief treasures in Ulwar. But Bulwant, the illegitimate offspring of Bakhtawar, who, at first imprisoned by his rival, was afterwards, thanks to a little pressure from the English, well provided for, also had a taste for paintings, and at his death, childless, they fell to Ulwar. It is very remarkable that of four rulers, counting from Pratap, only one,
Banni, had a direct heir, and he died insane. After that event, the present Maharajah was selected by the nobles with the approval of the Paramount Power. He is now in his thirty- first year, and so far has done his work well, having even acted as his own dewan for several months. Banni, however, appears to have done much to develop Ulwar; not his least work being the construction of a bund in the bills, whereby a beautiful lake was formed, whence flow streams which make the city and its surroundings an oasis of verdure " in a land where the average annual rainfall barely exceeds twenty-six inches. It is, however, a tract of territory not without its advantages. A chain of hills, rising to considerable heights, runs from south to north, and contains several minerals,—iron, copper, lead, and silver. None, except iron, is worked, the cost swallowing the profit. In the extensive forests good timber abounds, and stone of many kinds, suitable for build- ings, including white, pink, and black marble, is abundant. It has been said that Rajpootana is a " land of stone," and Ulwar has its full share. What trade there is seems to be in stone, salt, saltpetre, and glass ; but it is not much, though the State railway may perhaps stimulate production a little by bringing markets nearer. Mr. Hendley says that the "art work is all done for the Court by State servants," and that the Maharajah is really the only person in his dominions who can afford to employ artists of note. Thus, we pass in a century from the crafty warrior who founded the State, through a troubled era of war and mutiny, to the pax Britannica, when the chief of this interesting patch of mountain, forest, and plain is Lieutenant-Colonel Maharajah Sir Mungul Singh, who was educated at the Mayo College, Ajmere, and the cherished glories of whose palace are repre- sented in a resplendent volume published at Peckham ! Verily India is a land of stupendous and startling .-xintrasts, whereof this monograph on Ulwar serves to remind us as well as the larger fact, that the Empress Victoria exercises that sovereign sway to which neither Akbar nor Aurangzib ever attained. Yet, despite the relative nearness of India to England in these days, the two countries are still more separate in their essential modes of life and thought than England and America or England and Australasia. It is this absolute distinction which such superbly manipulated works as this on little Ulwar brings home to our eyes, a distinction apt to be forgotten because the supremacy of the Paramount Power is so complete as to have become a commonplace. Yet we cannot too often remember it, seeing that its existence implies a whole series of duties and obligations almost unique in themselves, and requiring for their proper fulfilment an ever-present recollection of the grave fact that these swarming millions of many nations so varied in character, united under English sway, are as different from us as the sunburnt land they inhabit is different from our misty, sea-girt realm. We may commend this grand volume to the studious, and even express a hope that other chiefs may rival Sir Mungul Singh by producing equally beautiful and attrac- tive epitomes of the territories they rule, and the treasures they possess or have called into being.
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