Rajput Atelier: Rediscovering Rajasthan’s hidden Mughal-era art gallery

The hunting lodge and pleasure pavilion at Rajasthan's Bairat.

The hum of soft music in the background. Gentle and focused lighting. Elegant carpeting. The murmur of admiring voices. The title and other details of the artwork. These are the things that a visitor usually finds in an art gallery. But if some visitors visiting Jaipur for the iconic Lit Fest were to get a bit adventurous, they will have the opportunity to explore an art gallery that breaks all such stereotypes.

Ninety-two kilometers north of Jaipur, a turn off the highway to Delhi takes a person to the town of Bairat, also called Viratnagar. For those who know their Mahabharat, Viratnagar was the name of the place where the Pandavas and Draupadi found shelter during their one year of forced anonymity. Locals in Bairat firmly believe that their town was where the mythological heroes lived for a year.

While the anonymity of the Pandavas was limited to a single year, the obscurity of Bairat’s wealth of heritage is much longer. Outside the town, amidst fields and trees, lies one of the most interesting tidbits of that heritage. In the form of a Mughal-era hunting lodge. Some historians, including the renowned Ebba Koch, have described it as a water palace, which means a pleasure pavilion set in the middle of a water tank. If there was ever a water tank here, it is long gone and has been replaced by fields.

What does remain is a squarish 17^th century CE building built on a stone platform. The two-story structure is crowned by small cupolas in the corners and a larger one in the middle. Unremarkable from the outside, the structure leaves a visitor stunned when he enters. Hundreds of years ago, someone gave a group of artists a license to run riot here. On the walls and ceiling of this small structure in little-explored Bairat is a breathtaking sequence of medieval art.

Ceiling pattern in the middle of geometric designs. (Photo by Arjun Kumar)

The ceiling is dominated by a mix of geometric and floral patterns. Squares, rectangles and triangular shapes are inset with painted flowers. And within the flowers are more geometric shapes and smaller flowers. Some starry shapes are also shown, as if the artists attempted to bring the cosmos closer. The dominant colours are shades of brown, which look stunning against the stone’s sandy colour.

A ceiling pattern inside the hunting lodge. (Photo by Arjun Kumar)

On the walls are a series of divine figures from the pantheon of Hindu gods, as well as depictions of a royal court and everyday life. On one side, Krishna plays the flute to the Gopis, with one difference – the Gopis are depicted as mermaids. Has anyone ever seen such a depiction elsewhere?

Krishna and Gopis - the latter depicted as mermaids. (Photo by Arjun Kumar)

On another side is a painting of Vishnu’s Narasimha incarnation. On his thighs is the asura Hiranyakashipu, being torn apart by Narasimha, while another figure watches. Interestingly, both the asura and the figure standing by are shown in the court dresses of the 15^th – 17^th century era. The artist who created this gave the Narasimha story a contemporary feel!

Narasimha tears apart an asura dressed in medieval court attire. (Photo by Arjun Kumar)

Within a diamond shaped pattern is a three-headed figure with six hands, also in court dress. On another wall is Durga sitting on her lion, fanned by a couple of ladies. There are several figures of ascetics in meditative posture and depictions of people wrestling.

Durga atop her lion. (Photo by Arjun Kumar)

On one side is a painting of a man of immense proportions seeming to shake a tree, with smaller humans falling off its branches and birds flying away in panic. Is this a possible depiction of Bhimasena, the Pandava known for his physical prowess?

A huge figure shakes or uproots a tree. (Photo by Arjun Kumar)

On one wall, a tall male figure is shown coming close to a woman, with a hand outstretched. Next to it is another scene – the male figure has grabbed the woman’s hand and seems to be pulling her. From above, a bird looks like he is swooping in to attack. Is this a depiction of the kidnapping of Sita by Ravana, with Jatayu attempting a rescue? In this medieval art gallery, there is no curate to whisper fine details of paintings to a visitor and one is left to figure out for oneself.

A possible depiction of Ravana kidnapping Sita. (Photo by Arjun Kumar)

The upper level of the monument has paintings too, but access to them is closed and one can only speculate what stories those walls tell. The patron builder of this structure was not a Mughal, but a Rajput. And no ordinary chieftain at that, but the ruler of Amer (now Jaipur) itself. Raja Man Singh Kachhwaha, the man credited by Koch as the probable patron of the place, did not just rule his kingdom but was a leading military commander in the Mughal army. Given Bairat’s proximity to the Sariska wildlife sanctuary, it is probable that he built this structure as a hunting lodge and a pleasure pavilion.

Bairat’s history goes way before the Mughals. It contains an Ashokan rock inscription, as well as remains of an ancient Buddhist stupa. In a state known for its heritage, it is incredible that a site with such features and so close to the Jaipur-Delhi highway has been missed by visitors. Perhaps this Lit Fest season, it could be ‘rediscovered’.