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Nap Time in early Modern South Asia

 

In the process of exploring so many paintings from early modern South Asia, the sensorial details revealed abundant scents and flavours, but above all, this world gave language to the sublime concept of leisure! 

Across courtyards, camp sites and forests, are depictions of figures resting under the open sky on finely crafted beds on their moonlit marble terraces, or within the security of ornately embroidered tents, or under the cool shade of banana trees in public gardens. Such visual delights made me consider my foundational intent for building Bagh-e Hind --- and inspired an offshoot that springs from my own need for recuperation after a year of constructing such a mammoth project. More on my reasoning for this offshoot can be read in Newsletter 14: Nap Time in Mughal India.

In the upcoming galleries, I invite a few scholars to select their favourite paintings depicting rest and leisure with brief commentaries on the subject.

Bharti Lalwani

Critic & Perfumer, October 2022

Canopies & Courtyards

Take a leisurely stroll through our temporary gallery until the main exhibition is ready

"The dream of Zulaykha"
from the Amber Album

Nicolas Roth selects a Mughal folio

from the 17th century

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