India is known for its ‘sharam’ and ‘haya’ all over the world. People across the world and often times, we in modern times, think that the Indian culture says that ‘women are meant to be at home’ and ‘they are the ‘izzat’ (respect) of the house, that it is wrong to fight and we need to listen, but when I reached Jaganmohan palace and I saw the paintings and the palace itself, my image of the culture of India as depicted was taken aback. I did knew that we as a country have changed a lot in past 300 years, but what alarmed me was that ‘the modern India’ that we are talking about, is actually our past.
Now, the palace was constructed under the supervision of Maharaja Sai Krishna Raja Wodiyar III. It is created in the Hindu style and you can see wooden staircases and the windows that are very similar to the ones you can find if you go visit the hills of our country. It has three floors where the first two floors have paintings decorated all over the walls and the top most has all the music instruments that the raja used to play.
In the ground floor, you will be asked to submit your cameras and phones with camera so all you can do is capture the beauty of the paintings in your eyes. Now, there were lot of paintings but let me talk about the ones that just took my attention for a very long time.
The moment you enter, that is when you are in the ground floor, you see paintings of William Shakespeare plays, Maharaja in his royal suite and paintings where he is seen with the European durbars. The first painting that caught my attention was a massive one wherein the Maharaja is seen sitting in the European Durbar with all the British men alongside him. Next to it, was a painting where you could see all the rulers who had ruled Mysore.
Moving forward from the ground floor, I reached the first floor and trust me, my idea of Indian History for sure changed. There were pictures of nude women, pictures depicting love and lust, temptation and cast system. The ones that I really loved were- Sucking child, temptation of Buddha by Bhuvan Varma, Almora Hills during Diwali lights by BN Jugga, Fugitive Lovers by Ishwardas, The Blessing By P.R Roy, In the land of love by Bhuvan Varma, Harijan By A.D Thomas, Narthaki by Benoy Sen. If you are going there and I tell you, you must go, these are the ones you should check out for.
Sucking child had a woman with her breast uncovered and a child drinking milk. The moment I saw that the first thing that came to my mind was the present day controversy going on, that whether it should be allowed to breast feed in public!! I mean just imagine, this was part of our normal routine some 250 years back and now we are debating on whether it should be allowed again.
Temptation of Buddha is also an amazing photo. It depicts Buddha sitting calmly and women are trying to distract him from his yoga. The moment I saw that, I though what if something like this is depicted in our television, I am dead sure, it will be banned and buses and roads will be burnt.
Almora Hills during Diwali is special to me because I am from Almora and the moment I saw the picture I just go a glimpse of the nights that we used to spend there. Also, seeing that picture here in the south, was a special retreat for me.
Fugutive Lovers showed two lovers who were in love. What caught my attention was the fact that it is so easy to depict love in paintings, doing this in real life, creates so much of controversy.
The harijan is that one painting you should actually go and look out for. It depicts in a very true sense what it is like o be a harijan and how the society actually treats harijans.
And then there is this beautiful painting Glow of hope. Also, check out paintings by Gagendranath Tagore. They are truly amazing.
But, you know, all the while when I was being amazed by the boldness in the paintings, what struck a right chord was a women with her husband. There were nude paintings in the room, women being depicted as warriors and then there was this women with her husband, (palla) on her head, walking behind her husband and watching those paintings only through a purdah in front of her face. Irony it was, the moment I was rejoicing the fact that Indian culture is way broader than the world thinks, I was shown the ground reality.
Either ways, if you want to see some amazing photos, musical instruments played by the Maharaja himself(yest they are, you could find veena, sitar, violin, tabla and then games like chess in the third floor), and animals he caught ( there is literally a porcupine kept that was shot by Major Sardar, and it is not a painting), go visit the place. You are going to be amazed at the beauty, history and talent the country holds, the way I am.
Tanubhrt.This.Side 
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