© The Trustees of the British Museum.
Published Friday 12 May 2017 at 13:28
Music of Courtly India is a new British Museum Partnership Spotlight loan, coming to Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery from the end of June.
The new exhibition features works made in India for courtly patrons including a stunning album of ragamala paintings (c.1610) an ivory sarinda instrument (c.1700) and five 18th century ragamala paintings on loan from the British Museum.
Popular amongst Rajput and Mughal patrons in northern India, and Sultanate patrons in the Deccan (south-central India), ragamala paintings are visual interpretations of poems based on classical Indian raga music. They convey the moods of love, longing and devotion via a rich array of characters, from solitary ascetics to women of the court.
The exhibition is part of the British Museum South Asia Season 2017 and is supported by the Dorset Foundation.
It comes in a year when the UK and India will celebrate their cultural ties and the 70th anniversary of India’s independence, with a unique programme of cultural exchanges organised by the British Council and the Government of India.
It will also run alongside India’s Gateway, a photographic exhibition at Blackburn museum until July 15, that aims to capture life in both Gujarat and Mumbai, areas that through trade and migration have developed strong links with the UK and in particular East Lancashire as a result of the textile industries of the past.
Music of Courtly India opens on June 30 and is at Blackburn Museum & Art Gallery until August 26.
It will feature a talk by Dr Imma Ramos, the British Museum’s curator of the South Asia collections on July 20 from 5:30-7:30pm.
The talk is free and can be booked via the museum on 01254 667130.
Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery is free and open to the public Wednesdays to Saturdays, 12noon to 4.45pm