An excessive nostalgia

Five years in the making metaphorically, this handsome book that continues Roli Books' tryst with the maharajas dates back sesquicentenially to a period when the first black and white photographs found royal patronage.

And here it is "" nostalgia laced with pomp, glamour and extravagance, the Karan Johar equivalent of celluloid drama frozen into the remarkable faces and excessive jewels of portraits of rajas and maharajas long consigned into the annals of history.

Make no mistake, even though the book (you could build muscles just holding it up for a few minutes every day) nods technically in the direction of 'one hundred and fifty years of photography', it does not mar with either photographic terms, or knowledge.

Instead, it sticks to Roli's tried and tested formula of romancing the maharajas, indisputably India's single-largest selling export in the pictorial books trade.

And it does so with breathless extravagance. Collected, collated and copied from sources that include European museums and private collections, the vintage photographs ""many original "" have now found an archival resource that must be the largest any publisher could hope to have of the abundance and ostentation of princely India.

Here were a chosen people who were born to rule, and whose every minutiae was recorded for posterity by a British Raj that was to the manor born.

The celebrity photographer replaced the court artist, and realistic images first began to be created. In studios, or in their palaces, the princes took to being photographed almost instinctively.

The likes of the homegrown Raja Deen Dayal were allowed access into zenanas, one reason why the British encouraged the blue-blooded Indian photographer to ply his craft since it was their only view into these hotbeds of intrigue over which they had absolutely no control.

It was out of interest in Raja Deen Dayal's works that the book under review was born. For photo editor and publisher Pramod Kapoor, Paul's suggestion of a book on the Raja's collection grew to an overwhelming interest in black and white photography.

That spurred him to travel and invest considerably in acquiring portraits that offered vignettes into India's erstwhile magnificent royal life.

And so a quest began, to put together the largest and most comprehensive assembly of royal pictures into a single volume.

That Kapoor has succeeded is evident. The book is an album that dips into a century and a half of splendour.

Here are images "" many familiar, some rare, others being published for the first time "" of the magnificence of the durbar, of large residences, of pearly eyed royal maids, of courtiers, caparisoned elephants and glittering chandeliers, of visiting blue-bloods and shikar trips, of stately saloons and viceroys who fade into insignificance besides their bejewelled subordinates.

From imposing noblemen to stately parades, from horse races to gun salutes, from rivetting sport pictures to endearing images of little princes and princesses swathed in brocades and emeralds, or crossover portraits of Indian princesses posing in trendy western court dresses, the images are a reflection of yesterday's page three people in all their glory.

Large captions tell stories, several of which are anecdotal, that humanise both the book and the subject of the portraits.

Alas, similar claim cannot be made for the text that is sketchy in its extent, and therefore no more than a thrifty introduction that does not get under the skin of the book.

Given Paul's penchant for writing "" he has penned several books for Roli after retiring from a corporate life "" this is especially disappointing.

A detailed text would have been a welcome addition, since it is unlikely that a book of a similar nature will be published in a hurry.

While the captions breathe some textual life into the book, a solid text would have added greatly to its value, and Paul could have easily contributed much more than allowed by the constraints of the limited pages allocated to him for the purpose of churning out pretty prose.

And if the captions are any indication of Paul's research and erudition on the subject, the loss to the book is indeed immense.

There are some gripes with the publisher too. For one, there is no map of princely India included in the book.

For the 21st reader who is a 'commoner', therefore, the references to the princely states and their feudatories can be confusing, since they are less likely to be primed about either their location or their relationships with each other.

The book would also have gained considerably had it used some of the standard indices for further reference "" the main princely clans, their antecedents, their spread, the gun salutes awarded to them, their titles and similar information would have made the book more easily digestible to rootless urban readers.

There are some lacunae too in the identification of palaces and princes, who are glossed over by their titles rather than their names, but these are minor grouses.

In totality, the book is one of the handsomest to come out of the stable of Indian publishers, with a strong thematic content that matches the size and scale of the tome.

While the maharajas themselves may have become a cliched nomenclature for India's past, the pictures the book presents allow a peek into an India that is now the stuff of wallowing nostalgia.

It is at the same time an immense sweep (and an immense task) compressed impossibly into a single volume that will become the standard bearer for coffee table books for some time to come.

THE UNFORGETTABLE MAHARAJAS
One hundred and fifty years of photography

Photo research & editing: Pramod Kapoor
Text: E Jaiwant Paul
Lustre Press/ Roli Books