Imagine carefully crafted vignettes of Indian maharanis serving as a tool for history as well as becoming a muse set against a backdrop of borrowed vocabulary from settings of the yesteryear. Maharanis: Women of Royal India by Mapin Publishing is a visual treat for eyes that are tired of the chimera of screaming colour in a world obsessed with selfies.
To think that a lushly toned flawless portrait of Princess Indira Devi of Kapurthala was shot in the Kinsey Bros studio in Connaught Place, Delhi, is such a warm feeling of connectivity even as it harks back to the 1930s.
The images in the book are more like a mixed bag. Some taken in studios have this stark frozen quality in which artifice overwhelms and takes away from the subject in question. The beauty of in depth scrutiny reveals that a number of these portraits belonged to an India where the architectural splendour of empires long past alternated with lonely landscapes, and the opulence of the upper classes contrasted with the poverty and deprivation of the masses.
Anyway, the maharanis become the subject of both legend and lore, perhaps in the images shot over time they were symbols of cinematic cynosure and therein unravels a narrative of the past. Among the five essays in the book it is Martand Singh and Amin Jaffer’s essays that carry the weight of historical sustenance in their pithy prose and their insights that are born of their own historic leanings.
If one were to preen into the images that come close to classic portrait studies that would stand apart for their iconic and timeless quality, one has to mention the three giants Cecil Beaton, Andre Durst and Anthony Beauchamp.
Maharaj Kumar Rani Sita Devi’s image by Cecil Beaton, 1937, reflects how he helped invent the cult of the celebrity image while pushing the boundaries of his art form with innovative techniques and staging. In the creation of juxtaposition and fantasy, you can see that he was going beyond documenting lives of both the famous and quotidian—poise is momentous in the way Rani Sita Devi rests her head on her beautiful hands. On the facing page is another image of hers taken in 1934 by Andre Durst. She comes through as one of the twentieth century’s most glamorous and alluring women.
To flip through the pages of this book is to enter a fabulous and surreal party where pearl strings and rubies rub shoulders with marble floorings and velvet drapes. We are brought into the meanderings of a mood board in which the dream space of artifice becomes the natural setting.
Anthony Beauchamp’s image of Maharani Gayatri Devi is the stuff of regalia. Gayatri Devi sits sedate in her embroidered georgette belonging at once to the modernist maxim in her neatly combed short hair and her signature princess poise. This image stands apart for its simplicity and lack of artifice, and spells the ultimate sophistication.
This book is also a statement on the diversity of vintage Indian fashion through many regions in the country because we see many Maharanis in traditional attire observed by photographers known and unknown across the country, varying in form and function. One last question for readers. Which township in India had the most beautiful maharanis? Kapurthala in the province of Punjab.