
Enrica Medugno
Senior Sale Coordinator
Sold for £7,680 inc. premium
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Senior Sale Coordinator

Head of Department
Maharajah Narinder Singh, the fifth in his ruling line, was once described as 'the most enlightened ruler Patiala has ever possessed'. During his reign he encouraged music and poetry, commissioned illustrated manuscripts of both Sikh and Hindu texts, built palaces, gardens and forts. He not only inherited the relative quiet of the reign of his predecessor, Maharajah Karam Singh, but flourished as a result of his support of the British in the Anglo-Sikh Wars, and later in the Mutiny or Uprising of 1857, when he rejected overtures from the Mughal Emperor and provided men and weapons to assist the British. The British in gratitude conferred estates and honours on him.
For a survey of the artistic flourishing at Patiala, see B. N. Goswamy, 'Continuing Traditions in the later Sikh Kingdoms', in S. Stronge (ed.), The Arts of the Sikh Kingdoms, London 1999, pp. 165-179; for a painting of Narinder Singh on an elephant in procession, in the Sheesh Mahal Museum and Medal Gallery, Chandigarh, see Stronge, op. cit., pp. 176-177, pl. 200; and for an 1860 photograph of Narinder Singh, together with a discussion of his career, see D. Singh Toor, In Pursuit of Empire: Treasures from the Toor Collection of Sikh Art, London 2018, pp. 258-259.