62 MAHARAJA BHUP SINGH SMOKING A HOOKAH
INDIA (GULER), CIRCA 1810 HEIGHT: 23.8 CM WIDTH: 16.8 CM
Opaque watercolour on paper. Inscribed on the reverse in takri:
Standing behind him is a courtier dressed in green holding a chowrie (flywhisk) and a black shield. Both men have swords, the talwars (hilts) peeping out from the velvet scabbards in which they are sheathed. The terrace is bordered by a low white marble jali balustrade and in the background is a tree with delicate floral blossoms.
sri ra (ja) guleria bup si(n)gh Maharaja Bhup Singh of Guler (reigned 1790-1826) is seated facing right on a crimson basket stool with a white floral cushion placed on a terrace covered with a yellow floor spread. He smokes a hookah placed on a circular mat at his feet, holding the large cloth-covered gold-tipped monal (mouthpiece) in his left hand and the coil of the hookah tube in his right. Bhup Singh is dressed simply in a white jama tied with a yellow checked patka (sash) over striped paijamas (trousers) and wears a lilac turban. He sports a moustache and a light beard and seems around thirty or thirty-five years in age at the time of this portrait.
Maharaja Bhup Singh is the subject of a celebrated painting, “Bhup Singh with his Rani under a quilt”, at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. This intimate scene with no attendants, dating to circa 1795-1800, shows Bhup Singh as a young man of around twenty-five with a wispy moustache and faint beard, smoking his hookah and cuddling his rani. It has been published in several books and exhibition catalogues including Vishakha N. Desai, Life at Court: Art for India’s Rulers, 16th-19th Centuries, 1985, pp. 92 and 94, no. 75 and on the front cover. Desai suggests that the numerous paintings of Bhup Singh in amorous settings may be a reliable gauge of his temperament, indicating that affairs of the heart prevailed consistently over affairs of state.1 Guler was one of the most powerful kingdoms in the Punjab Hills in the early 1700s but by the end of the eighteenth century became a tributary of neighbouring Kangra until 1805. Bhup Singh attempted to gain independence for Guler by joining a conspiracy of Hill states to overthrow the tyrannical Sansar Chand.2 He encouraged Bilaspur to invade Kangra with the help of the Gurkhas but all efforts were unsuccessful in the face of Sikh insurgency in the Punjab.3 The Gurkhas were repulsed and in 1809, Kangra and all the Hill states came under Sikh supremacy. Desa Singh Majithia was installed as Sikh Governor of the Kangra Hills with
headquarters at Kangra Fort. Guler became a Sikh tributary and Bhup Singh was required to attend the Sikh court at Lahore.4 In 1813 Bhup Singh was arrested by Ranjit Singh in Lahore, possibly due to a default in paying tribute. Guler was occupied by troops under Desa Singh Majithia, and then annexed by the Sikhs who ruled until 1849 when Guler became part of the British district of Kangra.5 Several paintings of Bhup Singh at different ages that allow us to chart the changes in his appearance, from young boy with his mother the Chamba Rani to full-bearded man aged about forty with his own daughter and ranis, are illustrated in W. G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, 1973, vol. 1, pp. 162-164, Guler 55, 57-59 and 62; vol. 2, pp. 114-117, pls. 55, 57-59 and 62. A painting of Bhup Singh with courtiers illustrated by Archer in pl. 64 shows him aged around forty with a much fuller beard than in the present painting but similarly seated on a round basket stool, which Archer suggests is a local Guler fashion. The basket stool is also seen in a painting of Bhup Singh holding a falcon in the Edwin Binney, 3rd Collection at the San Diego Museum of Art.
Provenance: Maggs Bros. Ltd., London, 1972 The Paul Nicholls Collection, purchased by the owner from Maggs on 8th June 1973.
Published: Maggs Bros. Ltd., Oriental Miniatures & Illumination, Bulletin No. 20, Vol. VI, part 2, p. 102, no. 153.
References: 1. Vishakha N. Desai, Life at Court: Art for India’s Rulers, 16th-19th Centuries, 1985, p. 92. 2. Ibid. 3. W. G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, 1973, vol. 1, p. 129. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid.