A Message from Udaipur

This week, we’re delighted to share a message from our President, Dr Norbert Peabody, who is currently travelling through Rajasthan, India. One of the highlights of his trip has been his visit to the City Palace Museum in Udaipur to discuss an exciting new initiative involving the Society’s art collections. Below, we’re pleased to include a short reflection he has written during his time abroad:

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The photo is of me, HH Shriji Dr Lakshyaraj Singh Mewar of Udaipur (Honorary Fellow of the Society), and Dr Mayank Gupta (CEO of the Maharana of Mewar Charitable Foundation).

We are discussing a forthcoming exhibition to be held at the City Palace Museum in Udaipur that will commemorate the 450th anniversary of the Battle of Haldighati that took place on 18 June 1576. The exhibition will bring together high-quality reproductions of all four depictions of the battle as painted by the Mewari artist Chokha between the years c.1820–25. The Society is fortunate to have one of these paintings by Chokha (RAS 062.001). The Society’s painting was commissioned by James Tod around 1820, when he was posted in Udaipur as the first Political Agent to the Western Rajput States (1818–1822).

The Udaipur City Palace Museum exhibition will feature photographic reproductions of all four paintings and will show them both at original scale (Tod’s ‘travel’ version of the painting is truly a ‘miniature’ painting, measuring a diminutive 20.1 cm x 30.2 cm) and as massive enlargements that will allow the viewer to explore the mind-boggling detail in each painting.

The unusual enlargement of the Society’s painting is made possible by special photography and computer graphics that enable it to be reproduced at roughly 150 times the original size without losing resolution. This photographic work was originally undertaken at the time of the Society’s bicentenary exhibition Extraordinary Endeavours in 2023. The Udaipur City Palace Museum exhibition will use these immersive enlargements to explore the divergent, and sometimes discrepant, narratives about the Battle of Haldighati that Chokha depicted across each of these four closely related paintings.

Norbert Peabody

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And in case you haven’t come across it yet, this remarkable painting has been fully digitised, and a high‑resolution version is available to explore in our Digital Library here: https://royalasiaticcollections.org/ras-062-001-the-battle-of-haldighati-in-1576/. While we look forward to sharing more about this exciting exhibition in the coming months, we hope you’ll take a moment to dive into the extraordinary details that Chokha managed to pack into such a small yet striking work.

Pilgrimage walk from Norwich to Little Walsingham

This week we also saw a lecture delivered by our partner, the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. Yesterday, on 19 February, at the Institute’s home in Norwich, Professor Susan Whitfield, our Council member and Professor of Silk Road Studies at the Sainsbury Institute, delivered a fascinating lecture exploring the medieval roots and modern resurgence of pilgrimage, with particular attention to traditions in both Japan and England. Our Director, Alison Ohta, attended the lecture and wrote that:

‘The title of Professor Whitfield’s lecture held last night at the Hostry, Norwich Cathedral was Pilgrimage from Nara to Norwich: Commonalities Across Cultures and Religions. This was part of the joint series of lectures held in conjunction with the Courtauld Institute and the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures. Professor Whitfield, who recently completed the pilgrim trail with Olivia Butler walking from the Hasedera Monastery in Nara to the Ise Shrine, reflected on how religious buildings have long dominated landscapes, serving as visible markers of sacred places and acting as focal destinations for pilgrims.’

The lecture forms part of the Institute’s ongoing project, Pilgrimage and the Anthropocene, which examines the history and archaeology of religious experience through the lens of pilgrimage. As part of this initiative, the Institute is organising two research walks along historic pilgrimage routes – one in the UK and one in Japan – to gain deeper insight into how people in the past might have experienced these journeys. The UK walk, scheduled for June this year, will follow the route between Norwich and the beautifully preserved medieval village of Little Walsingham, once one of the most visited pilgrimage destinations in England.

If you’re interested in the intersection of faith, architecture, and the natural environment, or simply enjoy a good long ramble, this promises to be a rewarding experience worth signing up for. The walk is open to members of the public and you can find the project leaflet and registration details here: https://naratonorwich.org/pilgrimage-get-involved/

James Liu