JOURNEY OF HUNDRED YEARS FROM LAHORE;
TO CALCUTTA AND BACK FROM 1924 TO 2024.
RARE WORK ABDUR RAHMAN CHUGHTAI ON SILK.
M.A. Rahman Chughtai participated in his first exhibition in 1920 at the Lahore Museum. On record it is there that all his paintings were sold. He was sending images of his paintings for publication, more so in Modern Review Calcutta, as well as others, like Prabhabasi. The first one got printed in January, 1917. His fame through these publications was spreading in the Art world. By 1920s his works were being exhibited all over India, including Calcutta, Bombay, Travancore, Mussoorie and other places. The big event was a planned exhibition of Indian Art at Wembley and a Board was constituted to select paintings for the same. We have the catalogue of Artworks exhibited at Wembley. The list does not include the painting which is subject of our present research. The work “Charm of the East” was acquired by the Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay. Our researched work is dated 1924, and can be anything. We checked catalogues of both Bombay and Calcutta. A lot of Chughtai Artworks are included there but not this one. It may be surmised that it was not selected for the show at Wembley by the constituted Board. The Indian Fine Arts Committee was appointed on 4th August, 1923, The board was composed of O.C. Gangoly, Lionel Heah, S.N. Gupta, and W.G. Solomon. In total selected 11 paintings of M.A. Rahman Chughtai for the Wembley show. Some must have been rejected. Descriptive catalogue points to three places, that is Calcutta, Bombay, and Lahore. The present painting under reference must have been struck out. Its travel journey seems not to be recorded by events.
On 6th February, 2025, I received an enquiry from Calcutta from a lady Soumitra Kumar Nahar, and interested in knowing about a painting left by her late father, Barun Kumar Nahar, related to M.A. Rahman Chughtai. Later I was told that:
“Based on our research, the work was originally part of the collection of Mr. Gopi Krishna Kanoria, who was born in Patna on May 9, 1917, and passed away on October 16, 1987. He was known for his significant art collection, particularly sculptures and paintings from Rajasthan and Central India. Subsequently, he sold it to Mr. B.K. Nahar, a renowned collector of Bengal School artworks in Calcutta.”
Yes, the painting was on silk, and was by my father M.A. Rahman Chughtai. I confirmed same. Lot of works are sent to me from India, but most are outright fakes.
The name of the painting:
There is a typed name for the painting. It was physically corrected with ink, from D to S, but in restoration correction removed. It normally looks like “Dawan at Hamaliah”, which is basically not right. As the type is obscure and the people there were not familiar with the language, It was presumed that the name meant Dawn, although it was spelled as Dawan in type. in my opinion it is “Sawan at Hamaliah”. What does that mean? “Sawan” means monsoons rain and wind. “Hamaliah” literally means the Himalayan mountains. In the painting itself the hanging stole is flying, as well as a bare chest covered with a damp clothed veil, also in the air.









The painting is on silk:
The usual working style of M.A. Rahman Chughtai is watercolour on paper. The paper is usually handmade paper of Whatman England. But in the initial period the artist did at times experiment working on silk. His friend Mian Inayatullah usually painted on silk. The artist is known to have made curtains for close friend Pitras Bokhari (expressed in his letter) as well as lamp shades. A few paintings were done. A friend and neighbour had one of the works on silk, but his son in law had taken the painting to the UK and the present location is not known. But most of the other works perished. The so-called controversial (actually not) painting “Poison Cup” was there with family of Mian Inayatullah, some years back. Presently not known. The painting “Fame” made originally in 1917, and modified, exists with a Doctor in the UK, but may not be on silk. In reality this may be the only one Silk painting of Chughtai known to exist and this extremely rare in its existence. Others are open to speculation.
The work has the image of the Moon in it:
Normally due to deciphering of the name Dawan (which is Sawan) as Dawn, it was understood that in the work we see a rising Sun. Upto the best of my knowledge there is very little use of objects as Moon, Morning Star, and planetary correlations. I think there is no painting in which the Sun is shown, simply because the portrayal in Chughtai works is romantic, and subdued. Not as fiery as the Sun. Here we do not see the rising Sun but the sinking Moon. Even the colouring of same shows that. And it speaks of wind and rain on the Himalayan mountains and the figure enjoying the same with a veil covering her naked breasts. The clothes are not vertically done but literally flying in the strong wind. Enough said.
The figure in the work is heavily jewelled:
It reminds us of various paintings done by Chughtai Sahib on the subject of Shiva and Parvati. We use one work of Shakti Devta for same. Other works of Parvati exist of the same type. Not all can be shown here.
The whole episode is full of romance:
A painting goes from Lahore, at the Chabuk Sawaran home of the artist, probably by train, and reaches Cakcutta. It goes through a process of selection and lies somewhere. There is a record that there were eight Chughtai works with O.C. Gangoly and they were not returned. A harsh correspondence is there on the subject. Perhaps this was one of them. Then it gets into the hand of a collector and then it is passed on. And presently being restored, I presume by professional people. Yes, art dies many deaths. But at times it lives on. But as a creation it lives on forever. A Hindu subject by a Muslim artist of repute even then. It unites various nations. Art is a sign of peace, a sign of love. Let us engender this kind of love between our two nations. Yes, harmony will prevail!