Art, South Asian

Scope Note: South Asian artworks in the University Collections

South Asian artworks in the University Collections

The Heritage Collections of the University include a number of sub-collections grouped together by their holdings. These include, among others, the Art Collection and the Manuscripts of the Islamicate World and South Asia (MIWSA) Collection. The latter includes significant examples of artworks produced in South Asia between the 17th and 19th centuries C.E. This webpage was created with the aim of making these works visible and having them contextualised as part of the Art Collection, so that they may be engaged with as the unique works of art that they are, while broadening the scope of the Art Collection.

The South Asian artworks within MIWSA include a lavishly decorated scroll of the Mahabharata (Or.Ms 510), measuring over 70 meters, with each kanda or ‘book’ of the epic unfurling with a representative miniature painting. Alongside are preserved a pair of miniature illustrated scrolls of the Bhagavad Gita and Devi Mahatmya (Or.Ms 674 and Or.Ms 675). There are two collections of Ragamala paintings, depicting musical modes and different moods, from Hyderabad (Or.Ms 114) and Jaipur (Or.Ms 437), consisting of 70 full-page paintings in diametrically different styles. There are also two examples of the muraqqa or album genre, one comprised of late Mughal and Indian court paintings acquired and compiled by an East India Company official, including 26 full-page paintings (Or.Ms 374). These depict a range of subject-matter, from historical figures and romantic scenes, to elephants. The other is an album of Persian calligraphy (Or.Ms 373), which includes two Deccani paintings and two European woodcut prints. Finally, a richly illuminated Indo-Persianate manuscript (Or.Ms 106) containing the collection of poems by the Persian lyric poet Shams al-Din Muhammad ‘Hafiz’ of Shiraz, the Diwan-i Hafiz, illustrated by eight minature paintings in possibly a Deccani style, finely worked with gold.

Dating from the early 17th-mid 19th century C.E., the works in this collection reflect the art of the book and religious scripture as well as album-making in South Asia. They represent a diverse range of locations, languages and histoires. While research is ongoing into their precise geographical reach, we know a number of the works were produced in different centres of north India and the Deccan alike. Languages represented include Persian (Scripts: nastaliq, naskh, rayhan, tawqi, muhaqqaq, riqa, suls), Sanskrit, Rajasthani, Bengali, Panjabi and English.

In the context of the Art Collection, these works add to other holdings connected to South Asia, which range from ancient Gandharan sculptures (EU1336) from the Peshawar Valley to the contemporary installation work of British-Pakistani artist Ammna Sheikh (EU5892). The MISWA works also expand the Art Collection holdings of painting from the early modern to late modern periods, being contemporaneous with European works including Pietro della Vecchia’s The Lovers (EU0742) and Virgin and Child with St Catherine from the School of Titian (EU0741).

Legacy cataloguing and provenance
The historic cataloguing of these works reflects the colonial routes by which they reached the University. Provenance research by Dr Lucy Deacon, Dr Andy Grout, Sarah O. Abou-Zied, Aline Brodin and others has shown that the large donations that formed the basis of the MIWSA Collection were predominantly from collections assembled by officials of the East India Company, including civil and military officials, company directors, merchants, surveyors and scholars. Many of these individuals were graduates of the University and the collecting and donating of this type of material to their Alma Maters reflects the wider role academic institutions held in accumulating knowledge and wealth from the colonies of the British Empire. The MIWSA Collection includes a range of material gathered in South Asia connected to its culture and history, including items relevant to Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism. The ‘Or.Ms’ reference numbers used to identify them are an abbreviation of ‘Oriental Manuscripts’, the former name of the MIWSA Collection (the renaming process of this collection is described in a recent paper by Dr Lucy Deacon and Aline Brodin, here: "Renaming (and Reshaping) The University of Edinburgh’s “Oriental” Manuscript Collection", in MELA Notes, Volume 96, Issue 1, (2024) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0f68259r [external link, accessed 17/09/2024].

All catalogue records include the available provenance data and information on the collectors. Research in this area is ongoing and such information will be expanded to include all details attesting the routes of these items into the University of Edinburgh’s collections. The South Asian artworks in the MIWSA Collection were donated by the following collectors:
- Lieutenant-Colonel John Baillie of Leys (1772-1833) (Collection donated to the University of Edinburgh Library by Lieutenant-Colonel John Baillie of Leys' grandson, also named John Baillie, in 1876.)
- Robert Blair Munro Binning (1814-1891)
- Dwarkanath Tagore (1794-1846)

About this webpage
This webpage was created as part of an ongoing collaboration between Dr Yashaswini Chandra, Lecturer in South Asian Art History at the University of Edinburgh, and Heritage Collections curators Dr Lucy Deacon and Claire Walsh. Our focus is on making South Asian artworks across the University Collections visible, accessible and open to research and engagement. It has been made possible through the work of Heritage Collections team members, Aline Brodin, Anna Hawkins, Gaby Cortes, Dr Andy Grout and Olivia Laumenech.

Found in 11 Collections and/or Records: