Event Review: "Heteroglot Art Of Early Modern Bengal: Paintings, Manuscripts and Patronage in Murshidabad"

History is not amusing when it is rigid, monotonous and one dimensional. Mrinalini Sil in her latest lecture, titled "Heteroglot Art Of Early Modern Bengal: Paintings, Manuscripts and Patronage in Murshidabad," organised by Voyages Into The Past, tried to break away from the colourless suppositions to present a complex layered picture of 18th century art world and patronage of Murshidabad. Apart from establishing the baffling connections between the designs of the Jain temples in Jiaganj and Azimganj, to the miniature of Maharana Ari Singh II, she also extended her argument to challenge the 19th-20th century historiography and its evaluation of the visual world. She concluded by situating the nuanced relationship of the 18th century art world of Murshidabad within a cosmopolitan framework, by highlighting the transformation in the nature of handling the miniatures by the British. 

We would like to thank the speaker and the audience present there for making the event such a huge success.