Out in the open

In the first exhibition of its kind, National Museum displays the paintings, sculptures and textiles of a private collector who refused to be restricted by time or medium

There are around 50 people in the special exhibition hall at Delhi's National Museum where the exhibition "A Passionate Eye: Textiles, Paintings and Sculptures from the Bharany Donation" is on show. Yet, not a sound can be heard apart from the shuffling of feet and pens scratching the surface of paper. All eyes are glued to the exquisite shawls and tapestries displayed on the wall. A Kashmiri shawl explodes with imagery of spring blooms, while the interwoven cotton and silk threads tell a story of 19th century Punjab in a vibrant Bawan Bagh phulkari piece.

The exhibition features not only textiles but also an array of stone sculptures, bronze images, paintings, wood carvings and manuscripts. These objects were donated to the National Museum in 1976 by jewellery store owner C L Bharany in memory of his father, R K Bharany. This is the first special exhibition by the museum that highlights the significance of private collectors in enriching a cultural institution's collections. A museum can only grow and flourish when it can add to its collection. And the only way to do that is to encourage private collectors to donate. "That happens only if one acknowledges the efforts of the previous donors. That's why this exhibition is significant," says Giles Tillotson who has curated the exhibition along with Pramod Kumar KG and Mrinalini Venkateswaran.

"Numerically, this is the largest and the most diverse private collection," says Tillotson. "Usually collectors focus on one form of art. For instance, there is a collector in south India who collects only stone images of Vishnu. But the Bharany donation features Cashmere shawls, metal sculptures, pahari paintings and more," he says.

If you can tear your eyes away from the textiles and move on, a showcase of stone and metal sculptures awaits. There is a stone image of Uma-Maheshvara from central India dating back to the 11th century exhibited close to a stunning 10th-century sculpture of a dancing Ganesha, again from the same region. The Devi in bronze from south India is just as captivating as a wood panel painted with Ragamala scenes from Rajasthan. One of the rare objets d'art is a complete manuscript of Ramcharitmanas with five illustrations from the late 19th century. "Bharany collected from the heart. He acquired objects that were aesthetic and not necessarily because they belonged to a certain age and antiquity," says Venkateswaran.

One of the most stunning paintings at the exhibition is a scene of Jarasandha Vadh from a Bhagavad Purana recreated on paper by an artist from Bundelkhand. With the imagery fresh in my mind, I head to Sunder Nagar market. This is where Bharany and his two sons own a high-end jewellery store where they design their own pieces.

"There are moments in life when you want to do things for others," says 88-year-old Bharany about why he donated the collection to the National Museum. He inherited the passion for arts from his father who was a man of modest means and education but had a great eye for aesthetics. "Scholars would visit him in Amritsar where he had a carpet shop," he says while whipping out a letter written by philosopher and historian A K Coomaraswamy to his father in 1913 about the collection. Indologist Stella Kramrisch, who was a huge influence on Bharany, visited his father in 1941 to see the collection of paintings. "When I met scholars like these, I realised that connoisseurs are the best teachers. You learn by observing their eye for aesthetics," Bharany says.

Tillotson says: "A Rajasthani artist introduced the collector to miniature paintings after which he became more confident about collecting Rajasthani art," he says. "Similarly he acquired pieces from Kerala from a dealer called Mahadevan. They would barter - he would give Mahadevan a pahari painting in exchange for a wood carving."

The curators say that the elder Bharany's style of being a 'magpie' collector is what sets him apart. It is also a quality that doesn't allow you to stereotype him as a collector of textiles or a collector of paintings. According to Bharany, art transcends all barriers of time and place. "Those are prison houses. Even if the outer gods say that the art is no good but your inner god says it is, then you must not think twice about acquiring it."

"A Passionate Eye: Textiles, Paintings and Sculptures From Th e Bharany Donation" will be on view at the National Museum till August 14