Formative years in the Indo-Gangetic plains, a job then in the Himalayas, a crucial stopover in Delhi and eventually a lifedefining tryst with Hyderabad.
That is what has been the life of octogenarian Jagdish Mittal, if you segment it geographically. But the passion inside the man always veered around a single idea: collecting artefacts.
It has now been 60 years since Mittal—originally from northwest India and always busy locating and cataloguing the country’s rich artistic heritage—has been living in the Andhra Pradesh capital.
“In 1949,” he recalls, “I went to see an exhibition in Delhi.
It displayed Indian and Pakistani art, and had just returned to the country after having done the rounds in London. Their sheer beauty from various phases of a common history inspired me. I wanted to house such a collection of Indian art.” Mittal, tenacious as always, realised his dream a little over a quarter century after that Delhi encounter.
In 1976 was established the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, or JKMMIA. Mittal had married Kamla in 1951, and that very year the couple began their life in Hyderabad. Today, 35 years after running and embellishing JKMMIA by donating to it their entire collection of arts, the Mittals have an unaccomplished task: a plot of government land for the museum. “I have been offered land for the museum in Jaipur and Gujarat, but now Hyderabad is my home. I want the museum to be located here,” says Mittal, who studied in Uttar Pradesh’s Gorakhpur, Dehradun and Varanasi before working as the director of a museum in Himachal Pradesh’s Chamba.
At 87 today, a museum is not the end of this connoisseur’s mission. “Alongside it, I want to establish a Centre for Advanced Studies in Indian Art,” he says.
Mittal’s endeavours have enriched Indian art literature.
His Sublime Delight Through Works of Art, a visual introduction to the vast treasure troves of art that is JKMMIA, was well received when it was published in 2007. “I thought that it was necessary that we at least have a book that catalogues some of the art that it contains.
A reference book.” The next book is coming out in ten days from now.
June 15 is the date of release of the work that documents the extensive collection of the exquisite Bidriware that forms a significant part of the JKMMIA collection.
As he thumbs through the pages, Mittal pauses at the picture of an antique bidri box and smiles. “I remember how I got this. I had gone to speak with an award-winning bidri master-craftsman.
As I was talking to him, I noticed this box lying in the dust —neglected—in a display case. I bought it for `50.
It turned out to be a 17thcentury bidriware box!” Tirupati paintings have fascinated him for long. “I’ve spent 60 years researching them,” he says. “Till date, no one’s written deeply about Tirupati’s art history. My next book will be on Tirupati paintings.” No autobiography? “Ah! I have a lot