HISTORY OF MOHALLA CHABUK SAWARAN – ANCESTRAL HOUSE OF M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI

HISTORY OF MOHALLA CHABUK SAWARAN
ANCESTRAL HOUSE OF M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI

Centuries of historical names and incidents

Lahore is a strange city. It has everything historical attached to it. Take the Mohalla Chabuk Sawaran inside the city. Maulvi Ahmad Baksh Yaqdil (18th-19th century), explains the area as:

“Diwar khana Faqeer Khana waqia Darul Sultanat Lahore; Mohalla Qazi Saderuddin Marhoom; Havelli Adina Beg Khan; Guzar Chabuk Sawaran, Kakey Zai; Mutasil Kocha Allama Hazrat Muhammd Sharyar Maskoor Lahori; Mutasil Masjid Chinay Wali, mubia Bahadur Shah Alamgeer Badashah; Feil Khana Shahnawaz Khan; Takia Sadoan; Katra Haji Amanullah; Chotta Mufti Baqir, etc.”

Dil-Pasand horse of Dara Shikoh
Dil-Pasand horse of Dara Shikoh

What exactly is KOCHA CHABUK SAWARAN? The dictionary defines Kocha as a Galli, guzargah, or piece of land as “Bara” or exhibition centre. We know that the word Chabuk Sawaran is obviously HORSE RIDERS and what had the horse riders in common with this Bara of land. We know there was a market place for horses outside Taxalli Darwaza Lahore, as well a market of horses outside Delhi Darwaza,. But this is inside the city itself. It means an exhibition ground or a stable, enclosure of horses. And with the Mohalla are the few house attached to its exhibition place of horses there. They must be even giving performances of some kind.But the other names are all historical.

Neighbour hood of Kocha Chabuk Sawaran
Neighbour hood of Kocha Chabuk Sawaran

Qazi Saderuddin was the Qazi at the time of Emperor Akbar, who rebelled against the religious policies of the Emperor. He was very popular with the people and could not be handled in a drastic way. So Emperor Akbar had him expelled from the city forever. A rebsel scholar in all cases.

Allama Shahryar was Imam of the Wazeer Khan Mosque, and he too rebelled against Ahmad Shah Abdalli, and openly insulted the King for his actions. Abdalli said his prayers behind him and could say nothing to him.

Adina Baig Khan was of course for some time Governor of Lahore and part of the conspiracy in the Abdalli and the Mughal period of Lahore. A very interesting figure who got married in Lahore to a Syedzadi of this Mohalla and later divorced her for fear of marriage to a Syed family.

There are a few Shahnawaz Khans in the Mughal period. Mufti Baqir was of course a Mufti of Lahore in the times of Emperor Shah Jahan and there is a Chotta Mufti Baqir still named after him in Lahore. Haji Amanullah may be many persons.

Masjid Chinay wali is the famous mosque in the Mohalla, now totally destroyed and rebuilt. But very strangely Yaqdil associates it to Bahadur Shah, Shah Alam, son of Aurangzeb Alamgeer. Sadoos were famous for residence in the city area and were responsible for publication houses, publishing old manuscripts in book forms.

In Mughal time the FEIL KHANA means there was a stable for elephants in this very area. Elephants traversing the Mohalla would be a unique sight under any circumstances.

Yaqdil associates Chabuk Sawaran with ethnic Kakay Zais, but there is much more to it. Documents prove the transfer of some horse dealers from Kanpur in India to this Mohalla in 1855 extra.The names of them are known, and some of them were highly educated and could even write in English. These horse dealers had bought portions of Mian Khan Havelli. Afzal Khan had two wives Noor Jan and Mahbub Jan., He died and these two ladies sold the property.

Diwan Nur Khan Herawi Chabuk Sawar Lahore
Diwan Nur Khan Herawi Chabuk Sawar Lahore

Recently a group of documents have been discovered which shows us more dtails of the horse riders. We have a Bakatarabu Begum along with a registrar Abdur Rahman Khan Afghan settled in the city of Kanpur (now in India) in 1855. Then we have references of Qasim Khan son of Munawar Khan Afghan again in Kanpur in 1870. Then we find them shifting to Havelli of Mian Khan and we hear of Afzal Khan and Wazeer Khan Pathans. We hear of Bobo Begum wife of Afzal Khan as well as two other ladies later, Noor Jan and Mahbub Jan, widows of Afzal Khan. Then we hear of Akbar Khan, son of Afzal Khan, who signs himself as a horse dealer in English. Then the havelli is bought by a certain J Rustam, who signs an affidavit of two pages, handwritten completely in English language. That means the horse dealers were educated people. The final transfer is dated around 1915. That is one family of Chabuk Sawars in the Mohalla, and they had a stable and a ground to show of their horse stock and it was called Kocha Chabuk Sawaran. Thats history in full!

Havelli Mian Khan of course is RANG MAHAL or the havelli of Nawab Lutufullah Khan son of Nawab Saad ullah Khan, Prime Minister of Emperor Shah Jahan.

It boggles the mind as to the kind of historical personages surrounding this area. And to top it all the area belonged to a mimar family of Lahore. We have record of Karam uddin Mimar buying this house, and succesive generations living here.The last of this was Khan Bahadur Abdur Rahman Chughtai, Mussawar e Mashriq, Artist of the East. who again put this Mohalla on the historical map of Lahore.

Mohalla Chabuk Sawaran
Mohalla Chabuk Sawaran

POST SCREIPT
Abdullah Malik’s reference about Kocha Chabuk Sawaran:

The most fascinating part of Abdulla Malik’s autobiography, which holds little back, are his early memories of the old city of Lahore. He writes, “I was born in the last years of the second decade of the 20th century, on 20 October 1920 in Lahore’s Koocha Chabukswaran, which was located in the heart of the city. Relying on my earliest memories, I can say that all the streets around ours, and in fact our immediate neighbourhood, the area bazars, the mosques, the takiyas, the public baths, were part of Haveli Mian Khan. This Haveli was built in Emperor Shahjahan’s reign by his Prime Minister Nawab Saadullah Khan, but it was completed during the time of Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgir by the Nawab’s son, Mian Khan, governor of Lahore. This grand edifice was spread over an area of several miles and it was divided into three sections: the women’s quarter, the men’s quarter which was called Rang Mahal, and the Qalai Khana, whose walls touched those of Masjid Chinyaanwali.”

Note reference to Qalai Khana.

A TIME FOR NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO PASS CONTEMPT OF ARMY ACT

A TIME FOR NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TO PASS
CONTEMPT OF ARMY ACT

Need to defend our national resources

Hero worship
Hero worship

Our parents saw the horror of war. Our ancestors saw the horror of weak countries and invading armies. People who have suffered know how much the defense of a country is necessary for one’s way of life. Allah tells us to remain strong and vigilant in face of negative forces existing in life. In life of many of us we have seen the invasion of a hostile neighbours. We are told by analysts of the lurking dangers beyond the border of a uprising of fundamentalists who knows no boundaries of co-existence. And yet their historians continue to malign us, and their paid agents who write in our newspapers and speak on our TV screens, the most stupid, naive or malignant assessment of all. Our strong Army stands in front of our progress. Of course the progress of these Mir Jaffers posing as forward thinking people. Of course their forwardness comes in term of visas, scholarships, handouts or even plain bottles of alcohol.

Pak Army Logo
Pak Army Logo

The list of this band of national cut-throats is increasing day by day. With no brains of their own, the brains of outside lobbies continue to feed them facts and their wrong analysis from abroad. A Lesbian has gone nuts in writing about our Pak Army. It is time to do something.

Zindabad!
Zindabad!

A ‘Contempt of Court’ law operates in Pakistan. It is time that our National Assembly moves a ‘Contempt of Army Act’ in the Assembly too. All persons speaking against the Pakistan Army should be first tried by a Military tribunal, and then handed over to civilian authorities for appeal purposes. Once found guilty, they should be a given a long term sentence, as well a survey of their resources, to find out the source of their newly gained wealth. I think lowering the shades, and you will find a trail of deceit and treachery miles long.

Mir Jaffer and son Mir Miran
Mir Jaffer and son Mir Miran

Love for one’s country cannot be quantified in any way. For us Islam is first, and everything after it. But Pakistan is the first step that Muhammed Ali Jinnah gave us. The first step towards an Islamic revolution. And all those dubbing our Quaid e Azam as secular, do not know that Islam itself has the most independent attitude towards life. And their trail goes the same long treacherous way as the others. Our Kalma is on our lips all the time.

DEVI PRASAD ROY CHOUDHURY A GREAT HINDU ARTIST – ECHOES OF CHUGHTAI ART IN HIS WORKS

DEVI PRASAD ROY CHOUDHURY A GREAT HINDU ARTIST
ECHOES OF CHUGHTAI ART IN HIS WORKS

The proud achievement of India

Down-the-Staircase
Down-the-Staircase

The Bengal School tree floated over India, both as a new movement and as a menace. These Bengalis knew no compassion for anyone outside their circles. They would tear anybody else to shreds. Abdur Rahman Chughtai survived their onslaught on him with great strength. But the Bengalis were not even nice to their own brethren in Bengal. The young versatile Roy Choudhury was torn to shreds by the Bengal School. In fact when Roy Choudhury showed his art works to Abindaranath Tagore, he called them worthless and asked him, to copy traditional Bengal works to learn about art. It is said that this really infuriated Roy Choudhury and he left Tagore in a hurry. Later Nandalal Bose took credit for his fame by saying that he learnt everything at the feet of their Master, Abindaranath Tagore. Unfortunately he is considered part of Bengal School itself, which initially rejected him totally.

Relaxation
Relaxation
The-Ambassador
The-Ambassador

 

Yes, Roy Choudhury was experimenting with techniques and ideas and sculpture. And like a dreamer he took an Italian Master as his tutor, and the Master trained his student without reservations. Roy Choudhury excelled in many aspects of art. Sculpture including the life size one he made of Maharaja of Jaipur is very famous. But there are certain paintings, which have echoes of Chughtai Art in them. And to us they look very pretty. We have all praise for this Hindu artist and the two nations meet on the cultural round. Art can bring nations together and it is this language, which can foster peace in our region.

Roy Choudhury Death Messenger
Roy Choudhury Death Messenger

Dr Karl Khandalavala just thinks of him as a ‘Decorative artist’ indulging in merely beauty and design. A man without even a job for long time, sought compensation in making stage backdrops and curtains, in the tradition of Master Hussain Baksh Lahori, stationed in Calcutta. Roy Choudhury was doing same in Bombay, as his home city was not willing to patronize him. But all his portraits, including those of the women he makes, echoes his love for his wife, who stood by him in all his distress years. Frail and beautiful, while his men are lone and aggressively male, Roy Choudhury is a proud diamond in a stack of worthless stones.

Roy Choudhury Musafir
Roy Choudhury Musafir
Roy Choudhury Palace Doll
Roy Choudhury Palace Doll

 

 

RANA CHANDRA SHAMSHEER JANG – PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL AND M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI

RANA CHANDRA SHAMSHEER JANG
PRIME MINISTER OF NEPAL
AND M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI

Royalty comes on board

Chandra Shamsheer Jang
Chandra Shamsheer Jang

The Art exhibition at Lahore Museum in 1920 brought M.A. Rahman Chughtai to the attention of the Indian world. His works were not only loved but were being sold. The challenge of the Bengal School was on the artist and his Punjab School was coping with the giant tigers of India. A famous work by AbindaranathTagore had won world wide attention, namely THE LAST DAYS OF SHAH JAHAN, and was being reviewed all over. M.A. Rahman Chughtai thought the work did not do justice to Muslim subject, for the Tagores had no knowledge of the momentum of Muslim feelings. In fact the remark of the artist was that Tagore’s Shah Jahan looks like a DHOBI (washerman) and not an Emperor at all.The response of Chughtai was the making of the PASSING OF SHAH JAHAN.

The whole story is in the research brochure THE CHALLENGE OF M. A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI TO THE BENGAL SCHOOL OF ART. Suffice to say that Chughtai’s work was also making waves in India. In Mussorie in the week from 1st to 10 June, 1922, with catalogue number 35, the same work was exhibited at the Mussorie Fine Arts Exhibition. There walked in a man full of sorrow. His wife had died recently and he was heart broken at that moment. The subject of a dying Shah Jahan related to his passions and he immediately fell in love with the work. The work was bought by him for RS 1500, an Indian price record of that period, with a few other works. The total of RS 3000 was spent on Chughtai’s paintings.

Chandra Shamsheer Jang and second wife
Chandra Shamsheer Jang and second wife

Who was that man? A man of forward vision. The Royal family of Nepal, who no longer wanted to be a King and turned Nepal into a democracy and became perhaps the first Prime Minister of the country. Of course Rana Chandra Shamsheer Jang. Politics aside, his sensitivity to Art was unquestioned. This one purchase put Chughtai Art on the market place of India. In a letter to the artist, Rana Chandra Shamsheer Jang, wrote in 1922:

“I admire the Passing of Shah Jahan. You must have been congratulated on the bold and artistic rendering of a great subject.”

With so many negative reviews coming from Calcutta from the Tagores, the letter of the Prime Minister of Nepal came to the Chabuk Sawaran house of the artist, and brought great joy to him for Royal appreciation. Master Sher Muhammed said the definite words to Chughtai artist, when he said that had Shah Jahan been alive he would have trampled Tagore’s version under an elephant’s feet and weighed your work in gold. More on that later.

Passing of Shah Jahan
Passing of Shah Jahan

A 19TH CENTURY POET OF LAHORE – FIDAI BAIG (MUKUND LALL) KNOWN AS FIDWI LAHORI

A 19TH CENTURY POET OF LAHORE
FIDAI BAIG (MUKUND LALL) KNOWN AS FIDWI LAHORI

Hidden gem of history of Lahore

Fidwi Lahori
Fidwi Lahori

A Hindu researcher came across a portion of an important Urdu manuscript which listed many poets of that period. Unfortunately the portion was left only with 10 Urdu poets. The rest had been wasted with time. But the unique aspect was that the manuscript was illustrated with actual portraits of the 10 poets. Our concern was with Lahore and we saw the poet Mukund Lall Fidai Baig known as Fidwi Lahori in it. Portraits of Lahoris of the past are very rare in all ways.

In the tradition of Shah Husain of Lahore whose unnatural love for Madho became a cult here for the common people, here too we see Fidai Baig sitting with a male beloved. The nature of that young boy is very apparent. In all ways it looks like a homosexual relation, but then poets were famous just to crow young boys as images for their imaginary passions. The poet had to have a MASHOOQ to vet his talent for love.

Somehow or the other there was demand for images at the end of last century and we see portraits, both real and imaginary being made by a lot of people. But the nature of this portrait, shows it to be a real representation. Perhaps we may carry images of some other poets too. In same period books with Mughal figures abounded too. We look towards a book published in Lahore with a sketch of Baba Hiyadatullah, a Punjabi poet of Lahore on its cover. But then I have seen a thesis of PU with a photograph of the said man, who lived right in front of the house of M.A. Rahman Chughtai artist. Poets galore all the time!

HAFEEZ JULLUNDRI AND M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI

HAFEEZ JULLUNDRI AND M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI

POET AND ARTIST IN PERFECT HARMONY

A tale not told before anywhere

Hafeez Jullundri
Hafeez Jullundri

M.A. Rahman Chughtai was a born Lahori and lived in this atmosphere all the time. But there were others who came from other places. One such name was that of the poet and writer Hafeez who came from Jullundur to Lahore a long time back. A literary group was already here and known as the Niazmandan Lahore, and were reluctant to allow entry to someone from other places. It was M.A. Rahman Chughtai who welcomed this young man into this literary group. A beautiful letter tells us all this in the words of Hafeez Jullundri himself:

Hafeez Jullundri with Quaid e Azam
Hafeez Jullundri with Quaid e Azam

“Please believe me when I say that out of all persons alive, your existence is one of which is the greatest source of pride for me, right from the start of my creativity to this day. You were the first to eulogize me, when I came to Lahore, by not only looking at me with favourable perceptive eyes but also concrete help as well as boosting of my morale. A writer can perhaps forget everyone, but never the first source of his encouragement and as far as Abdur Rahman Chughtai is concerned, a pulsating personality of the world, whose influence is spread all over, what can one say more, except that I long to see you soon.

( Translated from letter dated 1959).

Poet and artist together till the end
Poet and artist together till the end

A beautiful friendship emerged between the poet and the artist. When Hafeez Jullundri took out a magazine from Lahore, it was encouraged by Chughtai and we find the title as well as contribution of a painting for publication in it. The relation went deeper. When Hafeez Jullundri started his epoch making Shahnama Islam, he completed the first volume in Lahore, and it was read by Mian Nuruddin (known as Nur), a famous voice of Lahore, in the house of M.A. Rahman Chughtai, and there were at least 100 people who attended this reading, including Hafeez Jullundri himself. The wife of M.A Rahman Chughtai recalled how difficult it was for her to cook to entertain so many people at the same time.

Poet of Pakistan
Poet of Pakistan
First death anniversary 1976
First death anniversary 1976

The relation between the two touched at many points, including the design of the Pakistani flag, when catering to the idea of a SITARA HILAL, the artist penned down designs for the Pakistani flag for the Quaid e Azam with a rising Crescent in it. A number of people had actually sabotaged the design by having it tailored as a descending Crescent. The tailor Master was a Christian by faith and had no concept of rising and descending crescent and cultural saboteurs were at work to get it done wrongly by him.

Hafeez-Jullundri
Hafeez-Jullundri

The Poet and artist were in touch all the time. He would call at our house all the time. I remember one day I came from school and he was there seated in our drawing room with my father, and I saw an English woman with him. It was one of his wife and that wife held him in great love and reverence.

The poet Hafeez Jullundri was there first on the death of the artist on 17th January, 1975, and went with the funeral to the graveyard and he is seen standing in the front row of the funeral prayers in most pictures of same. On 17th January, 1976, he was there at the first death anniversary of the artist, and recited the national anthem there, while he cursed those in power, who were trying to even undo the National Anthem of Pakistan. Amongst tears Hafeez Jullundri cried and made many in the audience cry too. There he read his last QASIDA on Chughtai artist, entitled ‘CHUGHTAI, ABDUR RAHMAN’. He would pat me on the cheeks all the time and was very proud of me. We maintained a relation till his very end, and he introduced me to his wife and daughter. The daughter was reading the News on Pakistan Television. The family is still in touch with us.

Makhzan
Makhzan

WHEN THE WHITE BURQA BECAME BLACK – THE STORY OF BURQA IN LAHORE

WHEN THE WHITE BURQA BECAME BLACK
THE STORY OF BURQA IN LAHORE

Changing times and changing fashions

New Burqa comes to Lahore
New Burqa comes to Lahore

I remember burqas in my own house, I remember burqas around us all the time. My elder mother born around 1899 AD wore a white burqa. My younger mother wore a black burqa. Then my father insisted on having her sown a yellow burqa, and she was so embarrassed with it, fearing to go out of the house. But eventually time, caught up, and both the ladies, removed their burqas on their own. Such are changing times.

Black Burqas
Black Burqas
Burqa
Burqa

Tradition of Burqa 19th cenbtury

Tradition of Burqa 19th cenbtury

The Burqa was meant to cover the face and face only once upon a time. You cannot imagine, I have seen photographs of ladies wearing a burqa, with their breasts naked and they least perturbed about it. Such are times. But was burqa there at the time of the Prophet? The earliest image on a coin a few decades after the Prophet’s (PBUH) death, refers to no burqa at all. Ladies in various time of Islamic civilization are not referred to these references. Yes, protection of the mighty. Even in the city of Lahore, we come across accounts of Hindu mohallas having walking naked women. In miniatures of Hindu times, we come across nudity all the time. It was this freedom of not wearing clothes, which went to the other reaction. The need to cover bodies, to express the identity of the person. The Mughal miniatures show us the same thing. Ladies wearing tights with see through silk frocks and where their bosom can be clearly seen, was there, but the woman on the street, was just conservative in her dress. When the burqa caught up, we do not know. But it is a history in itself.

Burqa Fashions
Burqa Fashions
White Burqa
White Burqa

Burqas in Lahore

Burqas in Lahore

When the Muslims came here, they found out that the dress code of the Hindu community was entirely different. There was no sense of SHAME about the body and reluctance. In Buddhist friezes as well as Hindu, as well as written travelogues of people we come across Hindu women having a loose cloth worn around them, and most of the time, their breasts were not covered at all. William Daniell made pictures of them in his works. Other natural works are in existence. Covering uncovering is a measure of time itself.

Earliest depiction of Muslim woman 693 AD
Earliest depiction of Muslim woman 693 AD
A typical Mughal lady
A typical Mughal lady
1680 actual drawing
1680 actual drawing

 

 

HISTORY OF DESTROYING MUSEUMS IN PAKISTAN

HISTORY OF DESTROYING MUSEUMS IN PAKISTAN
INBORN HATRED OF NATIONAL AESTHETICS IN BUREAUCRACY

International tears are not enough to save culture

Destroyed finally
Destroyed finally

The partition times were destructive to all things and hardly anybody noticed what happened to museums. I think few would even know the immediate happenings. INDIA OFFICE LIBRARY IN LONDON could not be divided as it could not be decided as to which part the library would go and how it would be divided amongst the two countries. The exhibition curated by Basil Gray of Indo Pakistani treasures remained in limbo and many things left when they were in England. While India confiscated many things including the DANCING GIRL OF MOENJO DARO. But India venom was even greater. An immediate request was made to divide the Lahore Museum in two parts.

M.A. Rahman Chughtai strongly objected along with Malik Shamas the Curator of the Museum. Chughtai’s assertion was simple. If you want to divide Lahore Museum, divide Calcutta Museum too. If our heritage is to move to Delhi, then heritage should also move from Calcutta to Dacca. But nobody was even willing to listen. Museums do not matter. The Lahore Museum was divided in two parts and I am sure the administration there do not even know that at all.

Wishing destruction
Wishing destruction

Fyzee Rahameen and his wife were able to establish a Gallery in Burns Garden in Karachi. There was resentment in the official quarters. The effort of the Rahameens was brought to the ground and the gallery bulldozed to the ground. The works were transferred to Densha Hall Municipality of Karachi and there they remained in spoiled state for decades. A sad day in the history of Pakistan.

Ozzir Zuby (Inayatullah Kasuri) went on a study tour of Rome and locked his studio, literally a museum with paintings and sculpture, in the Open Air Theatre, Lahore. People will remember the place. He came back in 1952, to find the place ransacked, works gone and sculptures broken. The Government had taken control of the place. Heart broken he left for Karachi to start a School of Decor there with his wife. The school is still there even after his death, but the 13 sculptures he made of literature giants of Pakistan are gone into oblivion. Thanks to our Governments.

Alhamra Arts Council (founded by Chughtai Artist) was attacked a thousand times and it was a registered society. And then Naeem Taher (secretary) was sent home and the Council taken over by a special Act of the Parliament, to be used as a base to sell Bhuttoism to the masses. From that day it caters to vulgar dramas (no Anarkalli plays of Imtiaz Ali Taj) and even the administrative heads have been caught red handed selling space for bribes. This is national news not my own information service. The man who dedicated his life to Alhamra was forgotten. Even the name of the place was given by Chughtai artist, and it was inaugurated by Governor General Khawaja Nazim uddin with a Chughtai show).

The Punjab Council of Arts was housed in the Freemason Hall and then a Folk Museum was established there. We ourselves had an exhibition there, inaugurated by the Federal Minister of Culture, Arbab Muhammed.Those days are gone and the Punjab Council is in a hired house in Shadman from many years now, and the place serves as a mansion for the top man.

Bureaucratic kicks
Bureaucratic kicks

From last many years it is CHUGHTAI MUSEUM’S turn as the government is trying its level best to dismantle it by contesting its ownership. A land bought by the Artist himself in 1960 out of his meager earnings is being contested as having title problem going back to 1954. A dead Settlement Commission has been brought to life to assault and rape poor people owner of lucrative property. About 250 properties are in the limelight of the Board of Revenue and that includes Avari Hotel as well as the House of Begum Shahnawaz on Lawrence road, where Quaid e Azam used to stay with them. Nothing is sacred, and museums are of last interest in Pakistan.

Lahore Museum as well as the Lahore Fort Museum has been robbed many times. By robbers , no! By official police forces, working on behest of political leaders. The State destroying its on resources but that is another story! The highlight of which a Prime Minister of Pakistan was selling a MOON ROCK in London to a dealer, gifted by President Nixon to the State of Pakistan.

Who will weep for museums? No one. Really when bureaucracy polishes the shoes of the British Masters by destroying everything of Sultanate period as well as Mughal works and restoring British buildings everywhere. Slaves are indebted to Masters. Masters are impotent now. So all such people are receiving false orgasms!

LEONARDO DA VINCI AND M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI

LEONARDO DA VINCI AND M.A. RAHMAN CHUGHTAI
MONA LISA AND CHARM OF THE EAST

It is more about hype

Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa
Mona Lisa NAG Washington DC
Mona Lisa NAG Washington DC

A long time back I entered the National Art Gallery in Washington DC and there was a Mona Lisa version discovered and added to the gallery. Good. I saw the original Mona Lisa in Paris and read about the Isleworth version. I even looked at the skull of the woman supposed to be from Mona Lisa’s grave and felt perturbed by looking at the skeletal remains of the famous lady. Yes, Leonardo da Vinci was great artist, great man, great engineer. Everything, yes, we believe it. We love him too. But at some time or the other you see whether it is the Art that matters or the hype created by the West of its own artists. Yes Mona Lisa is great painting, but there are thousands of other great paintings in the world. So at times so much talk looks like charade of the people in control.

isleworth mona lisa comparison
isleworth mona lisa comparison
Mona Lisa skull
Mona Lisa skull

Now take M.A. Rahman Chughtai. The female figures of the artist are phenomenal. They are a Style all their own. Dubbed as the CHUGHTAI STYLE or CHUGHTAI ART, they are different from whatever created before, or afterwards. In 1924 the famous painting Charm of the East (first version) was bought by the Prince of Wales Museum in Bombay, after returning from England at the great Wembley’s exhibition. We will present its image too soon. But later versions of the same CHARM OF THE EAST were undertaken. It too has many attributes. It has its own value. It can be compared to anything.

Charm of the East
Charm of the East
Daughter of the East
Daughter of the East

The West wants to live on a cloud but when it rains, they come to the ground too. Islam has offered to the world aesthetics which will take the West millennium to know or to copy. That is a fact. So enjoy CHARM OF THE EAST by M.A. Rahman Chughtai, It is Art of the East. It is Art of M.A. Rahman Chughtai. It is the Mona Lisa of the East and there are no skulls to discover here. It is all from imagination, just Art for Art Sake.

1924 Charm of the East
1924 Charm of the East

JAGANATH TEMPLE ORISSA AND ITS ENVIRONS – AN AMAZING DIFFERENT VERSION OF RAMAYANA

JAGANATH TEMPLE ORISSA AND ITS ENVIRONS
AN AMAZING DIFFERENT VERSION OF RAMAYANA

The abduction of Sita as the Orissa Helen

Jaganath Temple Orissa
Jaganath Temple Orissa

When the British took over India, they found the area of Orissa, the most inhospitable land in India. Filled with mountains and jungles, nobody really wanted to be there. But it did host the world famous pilgrimage point for Hindus, that is the Jaganath Temple, where people from all over India and elsewhere, called with the firm conviction,that all their sins, however bad, would be washed away after bathing in the Temple. And legends galore about the episodes in the history of Orissa.

Pilgrimage exceptional
Pilgrimage exceptional

Around the temple are various caves, housing various relics of olden times. Recorded history just places the temples around 2600 years old. In it are effaced friezes as well as recognizable ones. The Mother Monastery houses the frieze of the Abduction of Sita, and that is one version of it. Another cave known as the GANESHA CAVE carries another version of the same. Surprisingly, although the Hindu ascetics at the cave all talked of it being related to the legend of Ram and Sita, the Sita or the Orissa Helen seems to be completely of different nature. Living with her husband, she is abducted by a LOVER, and instead of the usual return of Sita from the clutches of Ravan in Ceylon, here the version ends with the abductor winning and living happily ever after with her. This is not something we have made, this is something 2500 years old or so, made by ancient Hindus, and is vouched by the Hindu ascetics there as the story of Sita, and yet, Sita seems to be happy with the abductor and the abductor is not an ugly 100 face demon, but a handsome Prince in himself.

The historian has no judgment to pass. The historian has just to observe and relate and keep the facts straight. But this is recorded the Asiatic Society of Bengal as well as the English archaeologist of the 19th century. Narrated by the writer, W.W. Hunter in 1872, as he says about the friezes in the Ganesha cave:

THE ORISSA HELEN DUBBED AS SITA
THE ORISSA HELEN DUBBED AS SITA

“In the first scene, a lady watches over her husband, who is sleeping under the sacred Buddhist tree. In the second, a suitor makes advances to the lady, who turns her head away. He has seized one hand, and she seems to be in the act of running from him, with her other arm thrown up as if crying for help. The third is the battle. The husband and the lover (or perhaps it is the lady and her suitor) fight with oblong shields and swords. In the fourth, the warrior carries off the vanquished princess in his arms. In the fifth, the successful paramour is flying on an elephant, pursued by soldiers in heavy kilts. The prince draws his bow in the English perpendicular fashion, as in the previous series, and a soldier has cut off the head of one of the pursuers. The sixth is the homecoming. The elephant kneels under a tree, the riders have dismounted, and the lady hang her head, as in shame and sorrow. The seventh represents their home life.

Yes, everyone seems to be happy in end, arms in arms, in full romance This version ridicules the eternal love of Ram and Sita, but the people doing this narration are Hindus, no one else. One fails to understand the intricacies of history and the research points are debated to no end.

Real frieze
Real frieze