探花直播 of Cambridge - independence

World鈥檚 oldest, illustrated Sanskrit manuscript launches India Unboxed film series

sjr81 — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 16:03:08 +0000

探花直播answer is India 鈥� and Cambridge. Among the many millions of objects held across the 探花直播鈥檚 eight museums, Botanic Garden, Centre for South Asian Studies, and 探花直播 Library, are a huge number of wonders related to the world鈥檚 largest democracy. 聽

探花直播stories behind some of these singular objects are being told in a series of short films as part of a year-long celebration across the 探花直播 and city of Cambridge to mark the UK鈥揑ndia Year of Culture 2017.

To celebrate the 70th anniversary of Indian independence in 2017, Cambridge has turned its gaze eastwards with India Unboxed 鈥� to highlight the astonishing artworks, artefacts, orchids and scientific instruments that have made their way to Cambridge over the past 800 years.

探花直播films will explore and explain why a tin of Fine Indian and Ceylon Tea was packed for an Antarctic expedition at the turn of the 20th century; how a brass transit instrument was used in the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India; and what a gharial actually is.

Malavika Anderson, Cultural Programmer for the 探花直播 of Cambridge Museums, said: 鈥� 探花直播collections of the 探花直播 of Cambridge Museums include a fascinating variety of objects, specimens, art works, photographs and manuscripts from across South Asia.

鈥淚ndia Unboxed is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate these significant collections - to look closer at the fascinating and often complex stories of identity and connectivity between the UK and the Indian subcontinent. Throughout this year the 探花直播 of Cambridge Museums will host special exhibitions, events and experiences that invite you to explore India through our collections.聽

India Unboxed is rooted in the 探花直播鈥檚 museum collections, and involves academics, local diasporic communities and artists from India and the UK. 探花直播rich programme creatively unpicks the tangled relationships of the two countries, fusing historical context with contemporary perspectives.

探花直播India Unboxed film series begins with 探花直播Perfection of Wisdom 鈥� taking a close look at the world鈥檚 oldest dated and illustrated Sanskrit manuscript, held at Cambridge 探花直播 Library.

Over the course of six centuries Cambridge 探花直播 Library鈥檚 collection has grown from a few dozen volumes on a handful of subjects into an extraordinary accumulation of several million books, maps, manuscripts and journals.

探花直播library is also home to an extraordinary collection of Buddhist works, amongst which is one very important Sanskrit palm leaf manuscript.

This manuscript is about a thousand years old and has one of the most famous titles in world literature 鈥� the A峁ａ弓as膩hasrik膩 Praj帽膩p膩ramit膩 or 探花直播Perfection of Wisdom in 8,000 Lines. 探花直播Perfection of Wisdom offers a path to enlightenment and signifies the formal introduction to Buddhist thought.

Certain events from the Buddha鈥檚 life feature prominently: his birth, his first teaching, his death, the attack by an elephant, the monkey giving him honey, and his return to S膩mk膩艣ya after teaching his mother in heaven.

Craig Jamieson, Keeper of Sanskrit Manuscripts at Cambridge 探花直播 Library, said:聽鈥� 探花直播many beautiful and well-preserved images are tiny but incredibly complex at the same time. Given that the nature of the medium, the palm leaf, places many restrictions on what an artist can do, the variety and detail in the illustrations of these manuscripts is astonishing.

鈥淭o this day,1,000 years on, the palm leaf manuscripts are still helping to further research on the intellectual traditions, religious cults, literature and political ideas of South Asia.鈥�

Over the course of the series, Cambridge 探花直播 Library is one of just eleven collections showcased in film. Other collections include: the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the Cambridge 探花直播 Botanic Garden, the Museum of Classical Archaeology, the Fitzwilliam Museum, the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, Polar Museum, and the archives of the Centre of South Asian Studies.

For more information about the India Unboxed exhibitions, events, digital interventions, discussions and installations, visit www.india.cam.ac.uk

What connects a head-hunter鈥檚 trophy, a meteorite, Hercules, a painting of a Hindu temple, an ornate desk, a brass instrument, a tin of tea (unopened), an exotic orchid, a gharial, stacks of home movies and 8,000 lines of Sanskrit manuscript?

To this day, 1,000 years on, the palm leaf manuscripts are still helping to further research.

Craig Jamieson

India Unboxed: 探花直播Perfection of Wisdom

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Seventy years of Indian independence celebrated with summer exhibitions at the Fitzwilliam Museum

sjr81 — Tue, 06 Jun 2017 14:53:16 +0000

2017 is the UK-India Year of Culture, a year of events to celebrate UK鈥檚 cultural ties with India. 探花直播two exhibitions are part of the 探花直播 of Cambridge Museums鈥� India Unboxed series, affiliated to the UK/India 2017 programme run by the British Council.

From Kabul to Kolkata: Highlights of Indian painting in the Fitzwilliam Museum, showcases a selection of Indian miniature paintings and drawings from the 16th to 19th centuries. Works produced under the patronage of the Mughal dynasty and other princely rulers are included, as well as several acquired by early British patrons and collectors in India.

Religious epic and myth, history, royal portraiture, natural history, music and architecture聽are all included in the themes of the paintings and drawings on show. A new catalogue exploring the themes of the exhibition has been written by Marcus Fraser, Honorary Keeper of Islamic and Indian Manuscripts and Miniatures at the Fitzwilliam Museum.

Elephants, Deities and Ashoka鈥檚 Pillar: Coins of India from antiquity to the present explores the history of India through coins produced from the 4th century BC until recent times. Cultural, religious, economic and political developments are richly illustrated by the coins on show. They focus on representative periods of India鈥檚 history, ending with a display of banknotes and coins produced since India became independent in 1947.

探花直播exhibitions are accompanied by a full programme of public events, including handling sessions of historic coins, lunchtime talks, art workshops and family events.

探花直播Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum, Tim Knox, said: 鈥� 探花直播Fitzwilliam Museum has a significant collection of Indian miniature paintings and drawings, the majority unpublished and little known. Many of these exquisite, finely detailed works are going on display for the first time. Our coin and medal聽collections are internationally celebrated and聽we are delighted to join this important year of Indian culture with some of our finest Indian treasures.鈥�

From Kabul to Kolkata: Highlights of Indian painting in the Fitzwilliam Museum聽is on聽show until September 3, 2017 in the聽Shiba Gallery.聽Elephants, Deities and Ashoka鈥檚 Pillar: Coins of India from antiquity to the present聽is on show until October 1, 2017 in the Octagon Gallery. Entry to the Fitzwilliam Museum is free.

Two exhibitions and a new book have launched the Fitzwilliam Museum's celebration of the聽70th anniversary of Indian Independence. 探花直播displays celebrate Cambridge鈥檚 past and present links with Indian culture with examples from the Museum鈥檚 world-class holdings of coins and its rarely-seen collection of Indian miniature painting.

Many of these exquisite, finely detailed works are going on display for the first time.

Tim Knox

探花直播Fitzwilliam Museum

Rama returns in victory to Ayodhya, Pahari (Punjab Hills), Kangra, c.1780-1790

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Another India exhibition gives voice to India鈥檚 most marginalised communities

sjr81 — Wed, 08 Mar 2017 13:59:14 +0000

Putting on display never-before-seen objects from the Museum鈥檚 historic collections, as well as stunning, newly-commissioned works from contemporary Adivasi sculptors, Another India tells the stories behind a remarkable collection of artefacts while confronting head-on the role played by Empire and colonialism in the gathering together of this material.聽探花直播exhibition also features 23 works acquired by its curator Mark Elliott, using a New Collecting Award from Art Fund.

鈥淭his is an exhibition about the India 鈥� or the many Indias 鈥� that most people in the UK don鈥檛 know,鈥� said Mark Elliott. 鈥淚t鈥檚 about 100 million people of Indigenous or Adivasi backgrounds who are marginalised by majority populations and the state. It鈥檚 an exhibition about identity, diversity and belonging; and the role that objects play in creating a sense of who we are.

鈥淭hese are issues that affect all of us, particularly now when Identity 鈥� who we are, where we come from and where we belong 鈥� is being fought over here in Britain. Another important story is how these things came to Cambridge in the first place. Many of the artefacts were acquired through colonialism: sometimes fair exchanges, sometimes gifts, sometimes not. This is about legacies of empire for people in the UK and India.鈥�

Among the objects going on display are a head-hunters skull, pieces of the Taj Mahal and a snake-charmer鈥檚 flute. Ten new sculptures, specially commissioned by Elliott after working closely with Adivasi and indigenous artists at workshops across India, will also take pride of place in Another India, thanks to the prestigious New Collecting Award from Art Fund. 探花直播workshops took place from Gujarat in the west to Nagaland, right on the border with Myanmar (Burma) in the North east.

探花直播sculptures, the largest of which is 13 feet (3.9m) high and the heaviest of which is almost a tonne, have been shipped from the sub-continent and will sit alongside stunning photographic portraits of Indigenous Indians 鈥� from the late 19th century to the 21st. 探花直播most recent works include photos of Naga men in their 80s and 90s proudly displaying their tattooed faces and bodies.

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鈥淲e are trying to make this less of a show about dead white guys by living white guys,鈥� added Elliott. 鈥淲e showed artists across India some of our collections and said 鈥榟ere鈥檚 the stuff we have from your place, what do you think? What would you make now if we asked you?鈥� 探花直播whole brief was to produce new works in response to the collections we have.鈥�

Ruby Hembrom, an Adivasi writer and activist, who has worked closely with Elliott and MAA on the planning of the exhibition, said: 鈥淎nother India is the only India we Adivasis know. Identity is belonging and we belong to this India. We belong to the objects of this India and belong to the feelings they trigger and emotions they evoke. 探花直播India that 鈥榦thers鈥� use is the one where we are confronting hatred, racism, sexism, exploitation, brutality, dehumanisation and stereotyping in our everyday lives.

鈥淣o matter how much we鈥檝e talked of or engaged in social and political change, very little has changed for us. This is not the India our ancestors sacrificed for, or hoped for us, and this is not the one we want for our descendants.鈥�

Among the historic objects going on display at MAA is a coin necklace from the 鈥楥riminal Tribes鈥� settlement in Maharashtra which was collected by Maguerite Milward in 1936. Milward went on expedition to make portrait sculptures of Indigenous and Adivasi men and women. 探花直播necklaces show how Adivasis whose lives were transformed by colonialism, reappropriated and repurposed coins issued by the British Raj as jewellery, signs of wealth and status.

探花直播head-taker鈥檚 skull meanwhile comes from Nagaland and was worn on the chest by a Konyak warrior who had captured an enemy head. 探花直播monkey skull, with red, white and black hair woven into the crown, was collected by JH Hutton, Deputy Commissioner of the Naga Hills and later a Professor of Anthropology at Cambridge, who put it in a glass jar and kept it in his office until he retired.

Headhunting was a popular but ambivalent topic of anthropology in the first half of the 20th century. It was an aspect of Naga culture that the British sought to eradicate but found fascinating, and which despite the coming of Christianity, remains a hugely important part of Naga identity today.

鈥淎nother India is talking about a very different India to most people鈥檚 expectations in Britain and possibly India too,鈥� said Elliott. 鈥淲e didn鈥檛 want to do a show about Bollywood, saris and curry, but instead highlight a massive body of marginalised people 鈥� numbering nearly twice the population of the UK 鈥� who to a great extent aren鈥檛 seen as having culture, heritage and history of their own.鈥�

Many of the objects going on display 鈥� whittled down from the 10,000 plus Indian objects in MAA鈥檚 collections 鈥� are the product of an extraordinary industry of exploration, survey and classification whose advance started with the East India Company and continued under the Crown until independence in 1947.

By the mid-19th century, scholars and administrators were working through masses of linguistic, economic, ethnographic and criminological data to decode the demography of India, defining groups of people as distinctive on the basis of shared language, customs, religious belief and 鈥榬acial鈥� characteristics.

By the end of that century, such groupings had been consolidated into a fundamental distinction between 鈥榗astes鈥� and 鈥榯ribes鈥�. Tribes were identified as groups of people who were separated geographically, socially or both from 鈥榤ainstream鈥� caste society. Often living in more isolated territories away from large population centres such as hill and forest regions. These groups were defined first as being outside the caste system but furthermore as ethnically or culturally distinct, often being described as 鈥榩rimitive鈥�.

While the constitution of India identifies these groups as Scheduled Tribes or 鈥楾ribal鈥�, this term is widely seen as derogatory with connotations of primitivism, backwardness and even savagery. In truth, all the categories are remarkably slippery. Indigenous, Adivasi and Tribal identities are still fiercely contested.

鈥� 探花直播objects on display resist pigeonholing, just as people do,鈥� added Elliott. 鈥� 探花直播identities presented here are ambiguous and contested. But this is not just an historical exhibition, the artefacts and the stories they tell are the stories of communities who are living, struggling and thriving today.

鈥淧utting together this exhibition has brought me and the museum into contact with extraordinary people: scholars, activists and artists and more 鈥� from the tribes, groups and communities that we are incredibly proud to represent here in Cambridge.鈥�

Another India is the centrepiece of the 探花直播鈥檚 wider celebrations entitled India Unboxed. To mark the UK-India Year of Culture 2017, the 探花直播 of Cambridge Museums and Botanic Garden, are hosting a shared season on the theme of India with a programme of exhibitions, events, digital encounters, discussions, installations and more within the museums and the city of Cambridge. Rooted in the Cambridge collections, the programme will explore themes of identity and connectivity for audiences in both the UK and India.聽

For further information, visit the Another India website.

Hundreds of objects which tell the story of 100 million of India鈥檚 most marginalised citizens 鈥� its Indigenous and Adivasi people 鈥� are to go on display for the first time in a ground-breaking exhibition at Cambridge 探花直播鈥檚 Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA) from today.

We didn鈥檛 want to do a show about Bollywood, saris and curry, but instead highlight a massive body of marginalised people.

Mark Elliott

A head-hunter's skull from Nagaland which was worn on the chest of a Konyak warrior who had captured an enemy head.

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