Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove City Council BN1 1EE
28 June 2011
An Indian Summer for the Royal Pavilion & Museums
The Royal Pavilion and Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
October 2011
The Royal Pavilion & Museums in Brighton & Hove will be celebrating its links with India
this autumn with a combination of events, exhibitions and tours.
The Royal Pavilion and the Indian Connection
When John Nash designed his Indian inspired façade for George IV’s seaside pleasure
palace no one could have anticipated the special link with Indian that would be forged less
than a century later.
Between 1914 and 1916 Brighton had the greatest concentration of Indian military
hospitals in the country. The Royal Pavilion was one of three hospitals - the others were at
the workhouse, now Brighton General Hospital, and the municipal schools at York Place
and Pelham Street. Around 17,000 Indian soldiers passed through the City during this
time.
The Brighton Herald reported in 1914: "There can be few stranger chapters in the history
of England than that which is being written in Brighton ...This royal Oriental palace is now
occupied by the Oriental troops of the King-Emperor' (George V)
Within the Royal Pavilion lavish public rooms, such as the Banqueting Room and Music
Room, were transformed into wards and the Great Kitchen was even used as an operating
theatre. The soldiers were amazed at being cared for in such grand surroundings. One
wrote to a friend back in India: "Our hospital is in the place where the King used to have
his throne. The men in the hospital are tended like flowers."
This remarkable story from the city's past is told within a permanent exhibition gallery
within the Royal Pavilion. Archive photographs, paintings, contemporary accounts and
newsreel footage help to bring the story to life, along with exhibits such as a Gurkha knife,
Lee Enfield rifle, transcripts of letters sent home by the soldiers, a ward menu discovered
under the floorboards and hookah pipe found discarded in the grounds.
The Indian Gateway
October 2011 marks the 90th anniversary of the presentation of the India Gate at the
Royal Pavilion to the people of Brighton & Hove. The gate stands at the entrance to the
Royal Pavilion Gardens
In 1921 Bhupinder Singh, Maharaja of Patiala, unveiled a new southern gateway to the
Royal Pavilion grounds. It was designed by Thomas Tyrwhitt in a style said to derive from
16th century buildings in Ahmadabad, the principal city of Gujarat.
The gateway, a gift of the princes and people of India, commemorates Indian soldiers
nursed in Brighton’s military hospitals, though only the Royal Pavilion hospital is
mentioned in the inscription. In his speech the Maharaja commented that his own state
had sent 28,000 Imperial Service Troops to all theatres of the war and a number had
received ‘Brighton’s abounding hospitality’. Brighton’s fame as a healer, he said, ‘was
talked of in many hundreds of remote Indian villages.’
To celebrate the anniversary Brighton Museum & Art Gallery is hosting an afternoon of
events on Sunday 23 October 1-4.30
Come and experience a variety of family-friendly activities on the theme of everything
Indian. Wear a sari, have your hands hennaed, try out your dancing skills, learn about the
India Gate and lots more besides. This event is run in conjunction with the Hindu Women’s
Group, who also celebrate their twentieth anniversary.
Ragamala: Paintings from India
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
22 October 2011 to 8 January 2012
October also marks the opening of a new temporary exhibition at Brighton Museum & Art
Gallery featuring an exquisite private collection of Indian Ragamala paintings.
This collaborative exhibition show with Dulwich Picture Gallery is based around 24 key
ragamala paintings owned by collector, Claudio Moscatelli. His love of these Indian
miniatures originated from a visit to the Victoria & Albert Museum when he first moved to
England from Italy.
He then came across a miniature at an auction house and it was ‘love at first sight.’ His
collection is a rare and unique grouping, encompassing almost the whole of the Indian
subcontinent: from the Pahari region at the foothills of the Himalayas, to the Deccan, and
from the plains of Rajasthan to the mountains of Nepal.
Ragamala, generally described as ‘music –inspired painting’, is one of the most charming
and popular genres of Indian painting. It flourished from the late 15th century until the late
19th century.
Ragamalas are a fusion of music, poetry and painting. Literally translated as ‘garland of
melodies’, ragamalas depict a ‘raga’ in the form of a painting. A raga is a combination of
musical notes and frequencies, intended to evoke a specific mood or emotion in the
listener, such as melancholy or peacefulness. Ragamala paintings express intense
emotions and transport the viewer to the scene itself, evoking the smells of the flowers or
banquet, or the sound of the music in the background.
In late medieval India ragas began to be converted into poetry and verse. The poems
describe the mood associated with the raga and also the season and time of the day the
raga should be performed. There are six principal ragas, meant to be sung during the six
seasons of the year; summer, monsoon, autumn, early winter, winter and spring.
Under Royal patronage, Indian artists began exploring the themes presented in the
poems. Up until the 16th century ragamala paintings depicted deities but then shifted to
illustrate narrative scenes and daily life, usually based around the love affair of a hero and
his heroine. The courtship, misunderstanding, tiffs and reconciliation of a hero and heroine
inspired ragamala painters, as well as a themes of unfulfilled love, lovers separated from
each other, passionate longing. Such themes are set amongst scenes of mediation,
musical performance, hunts, courtly receptions and entertainments.
The exhibition will assert the importance of ragamalas; its literary and poetic history and its
association to music. Looking at the different regional styles we will consider the meaning
and interpretation of the symbolism within the ragamalas.
The exhibition will also feature a collection of Indian miniature paintings held by Brighton
Museum & Art Gallery. From the Pahari School, they date from between 1780 and 1820.
Ends
Information for editors
Indian Hospital Factfile:
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Between 1914 and 1916 Brighton had the greatest concentration of Indian military
hospitals in the country. The Royal Pavilion was one of three hospitals - the others
were at the workhouse, now Brighton General Hospital, and the municipal schools
at York Place and Pelham Street
The troops were brought to Brighton by ambulance trains and local people turned
out to cheer their arrival
Around 17,000 troops passed through the three hospitals
The Royal Pavilion hospital, which included the Dome and Corn Exchange, had 722
hospital beds
Every attempt was made at the Royal Pavilion to conform to the sensibilities of the
troops from Britain's Indian Empire. Nine different kitchens, divided into three types,
were provided for different religions, there were different water supplies for Hindus
and Muslims, and the wounded were cared for by orderlies of the same caste or
religion
Most of the 4,000 or so patients treated at the Royal Pavilion survived, but 32 died.
Hindus and Sikhs who died were cremated on the Downs near Patcham, on a
specially built burning ghat where the Chattri memorial was later built. Muslim
soldiers were taken to a specially established Muslim Military Burial ground at the
Shah Jehan mosque in Woking.
The Brighton Herald reported in 1914: "There can be few stranger chapters in the
history of England than that which is being written in Brighton ...This royal Oriental
palace is now occupied by the Oriental troops of the King-Emperor' (George V)
On May 1 1915 patient Isar Singh from the 59th rifles wrote to a friend in India: "Do
not be anxious about me, we are very well looked after. We get very good food four
times a day. Our hospital is in the place where the King used to have his throne.
The men in the hospital are tended like flowers and the King and Queen sometimes
come to visit."
Information for editors
The Ragamala: Paintings from India exhibition will be shown at Dulwich Picture Gallery
25 January – 1 May 2012.
The exhibition will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue, published by Philip
Wilson, with contributing essays from authors at the forefront of the field: Anna
Dallapiccola, Robert Skelton and Catherine Glynn.
The Royal Pavilion
Entrance in Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton
03000 290900
www.brighton-hove-pavilion.org.uk
Open daily: April-September 9.30am-5.45pm (last admission 5pm), October-March 10am5.15pm (last admission 4.30pm). Closed 24 December (from 2.30pm), 25 & 26 December
Admission fee payable
Wheelchair accessible (ground floor only), Wheelchairs available, Accessible toilet, Baby
changing facilities, tactile tours for visually impaired,
Tearoom, shop
Brighton Museum & Art Gallery
Entrance in Royal Pavilion Gardens, Brighton BN1 1EE
03000 290900
www.brighton-hove-museums.org.uk
Open Tuesday-Sunday 10am-5pm
Closed Monday (except public holidays 10am-5pm); 24 December (from 2.30pm), 25 & 26
December
Free admission
Wheelchair accessible, wheelchairs available, accessible toilet, baby changing facilities,
passenger lift
Gift shop, cafe
Press enquiries:
Marketing & Audience Development 03000 290906 museums.marketing@brightonhove.gov.uk