Mapping the Past for the Present

‘Picturing Place: Painted and Printed Maps at the Udaipur Court’ is a forthcoming exhibition at The City Palace Museum, Udaipur.

Funded by The Getty Foundation, under The Paper Project, the exhibition brings together rare printed maps, painted maps and cartographic documents from the Mewar Royal collection in the Mardana Mahal from July 2023 onwards.

The exhibition gives visitors fascinating insights into how places, landscapes, and the topography of the State of Mewar were produced on maps, paintings, and other related documents. The iconic architecture of Udaipur’s palaces can also be seen in these objects, as depicted by cartographic printers and painters of the past.

Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation (MMCF), Udaipur received the grant in 2021 from The Getty Foundation for an exhibition of these rare, and never-seen-before, array of maps and cartography-related documents. Curatorial and research teams of The City Palace Museum, have been working on preserving the cartographic materials dating back to the 1700s in its collections.

Said Dr Shailka Mishra, consultant curator for the project, “The exhibition has been curated in different themes. We have showcased some 53 objects including a diverse array of maps meticulously commissioned and collected by the Maharanas of Mewar. On display are Paintings 7, Maps 31, Architectural drawing 1, Photos 12, Photo album 1 and Bahida 1 and in detail topographical maps, landscape paintings, the cartographic works of British painters on Mewar and Udaipur, besides the early printed maps of India, world maps, and local district maps created for revenue administration.”

To engage the visitors, there are interactive kiosks and tours provided in the gallery. Through stories, different perspectives, they can absorb new facts and knowledge about the history of Mewar through the maps.

“I heartily congratulate the curatorial and research teams of our Museum and the Getty Foundation,” said Dr Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar, Trustee of Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation, “for creating and curating yet another landmark exhibition. It is a fine example of how the living heritage of Mewar is being preserved, shared with young and global audiences alike in India and overseas. In the years ahead, we hope to build on these platforms of sharing authentic knowledge and our legacies.”

The ‘Picturing Place: Painted and Printed Maps at the Udaipur Court’ exhibition comes on the heels of the two major international exhibitions in France and the USA for which The City Palace Museum lent its invaluable collection in 2022-2023.

In France, the photographs of the State of Udaipur were jointly exhibited at Chambord castle titled ‘A Tale of Two Palaces’; while at the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, a selection of over 70 paintings of Mewar were displayed in the exhibition ‘A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur’.

The exhibition of maps, as collected and produced in Udaipur Court, is significant for it provides insights about how the earlier generation of painters, draughtsmen, historians were perceiving the world.

“These maps are historical documents and have tremendous archival value,” said Dr Mishra. “We have innumerable other court records like bahidas or daily dairies, architectural drawings, photographs and paintings: these maps complement and complete our understanding of the past.” The Udaipur Court was famous for its writings on history, literature; maps are part of this vibrant intellectual culture which belongs not just to Rajasthan but the entire nation.

Through this exhibition, Dr Mishra also explains the multifaceted purposes and interpretations of maps, from political and cultural motivations to imperialistic ambitions. “Seen together, it provides an opportunity to examine the visualization of architecture, landscape and topography in different mediums over two centuries,” said the consultant curator. The exhibition provides an avenue for further research on this unique collection and elaborates the agency of court artists within the field of cartographic knowledge.