HYDERABAD: When a young Jagdish Mittal, a city-based art historian and Padma Shri awardee, visited the Satai Poush Mela (an annual event during the winter season) at Shantiniketan, West Bengal, in 1946, he chanced upon a fisherman carrying a basket with an embroidered cloth covering it.
A lifetime student of the arts, Mittal recognised Kantha, a centuries-old tradition of stitching patchwork cloth from rag practised by the women of West Bengal. The fisherman could not fathom why Mittal wished to buy the ragged cloth and instead, asked him to accept it as a gift. However, Mittal insisted on paying him and gave him a `5 note. This embroidered piece would later be exhibited in the ‘Festival of India’ exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1985. According to Mittal, the “freedom of design” that Kantha offers is what he likes about the form.
In 1976, Mittal and his late wife Kamla set up the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art at their house in Himayatnagar. Today, it houses around 2,000 artefacts relating to Indian history and culture and has hosted some of the most influential figures ranging from former First Lady of the United States, Jacqueline Kennedy, to historian William Dalrymple.
Born in 1925, Mittal hails from Bulandshahr in Uttar Pradesh. “My father and brothers were all engineers. I always had a curious mind and was very keen on knowing how things took shape. This led me to take up the arts,” he tells TNIE.
He graduated from the prestigious Kala Bhavan in Shantiniketan in 1945. It was here that he met Kamla and they got married in 1949. Soon after, noted freedom fighter and philanthropist Badrivishal Pitti offered Mittal the role of art editor in his Hindi literary magazine, Kalpana. This led to the couple shifting base to Hyderabad in 1953. For his grandchildren — Naveen Beesa and Uma — the house in Himayatnagar is their first home. “He used to ask us to pick our favourites from his collection. ‘What makes you choose this object?’, he would ask,” says Uma, recalling how their grandfather used to train their eye for aesthetics.
When asked what makes a piece great in his eyes, he explains, “When I look at a piece of work, it immediately has to move my inner self. That is a quality that I look for irrespective of the kind of work (be it miniatures, metal, textiles, sculptures, etc.) it is.”
“I have been lucky to see a lot of art in Hyderabad. As there were still some affluent and noble families in Hyderabad around that time, I had the opportunity to meet and study some of the collections of such families,” he mentions, adding that art was the “victim” of the Jagir abolition legislation.
On Deccani art, he says, “Deccani art comprises many centres like Bijapur, Bidar, Golconda, Hyderabad, Ahmednagar etc., where art was done.” According to Mittal, Deccani art had a very strong influence from Iranian features and was more intricate than Mughal art.
One of the most well-known pieces in the museum’s collection is the ‘A Parrot Perched on a Mango Tree; a Ram Tethered Below’ painting which belongs to the Golconda school and dates back to 1670. The painting was displayed at the Met in 2015 as part of the ‘Sultans of Deccan India’ exhibit. “It was a proud moment for us as this painting was featured on the banners at the entrance of the Met and other publicity material,” says Beesa, who is now the CEO of the museum trust.
In 2023, the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art is still not a standalone building. Soon, Beesa hopes to transform the space into a “bigger platform of learning” which will be open to all. As Sir John Thomson, former British high commissioner to India, penned in the museum’s visitor’s book, “To see beauty under the guidance of a master is to see twice.” The museum can be visited by appointment only. Interested persons can reach out to jandkmittalmuseum@yahoo.com