Collecting In India
When we talk about collecting in India, it is important to mention the happenings of the late 19th to the early 20th century – a period of considerable socio-political and economic change that affected spheres of collecting. The excavations of the Archeological Survey of India, the diminishing fortunes of princely families that lead them to disposing their possessions, and as a result, the wealthy and educated individuals and European visitors acquiring these disposed possessions. (1)
Among the noted early collectors (or at least among those that have been documented) were the Tagore family, members from the legal profession, scholars such as Woodroffe, Coomaraswamy and Kramrisch and the educated and cultured families in Calcuta with a spirit of a revived interest in the cultural heritage of India. In the western part of the country, wealthy families such as the Tata family, one of the first to join the activity, and Marwari and Gujarati merchants from Bombay and Ahmedabad, began collecting. In the southern cities of Hyderabad and Madras, members of the nobility and administration such as Sir Akbar Hydari and Sir Ramaswamy Mudaliar were known to collect old and new art. While most of them collected stone and bronze sculptures, the Tatas were more encyclopedic collectors with versatile collections. The most widely collected were miniatures, notably the collections of Sir Cowasji Jehangir and A C Ardeshir who collected both Persian and Mughal paintings. The Rajput Pahari paintings were popular collectibles, too.
In 1972, the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act of India was passed with the objective to limit the export trade of antiquities to prevent incidents of smuggling, fraudulent dealings and for preservation of treasures. The outcome was rather opposite. A large number of artefacts, especially portable, like miniature paintings were taken out of the country. (2) The act dictates that all objects that are a century or more old should be registered with the ASI along with a photograph. The cumbersome process of registration and certain provisions deter antique lovers from collecting – one of the reasons for the decline in domestic collecting.