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In his account of December 22, 1794, Sir Charles Malet writes to Sir John Shore, the British Governor General at Kolkata, ”The drawing were taken by a very ingenious native in my Service named Gangaram, whom I sent to Ellora on that purpose…” The here purpose being reproduction of art and masterpieces at Ellora Caves to be further published with an article by Sir Malet in Asiatic Researches.
Gangaram Chintaman Navgire was a local artist, residing at Narayan Peth, in the employment of British resident, Sir Charles Malet at Pune. He also doubled up as a Hindu priest in the British army. Tambat community, the coppersmiths, had migrated from Konkan area such a Mahad in Raigad district in early decades of 18th century to places such as Pune and Nasik seeking patronage from the ruling families and Maratha nobleman. Though they engaged in tradition occupation of making cooper vessels with particular beating technique, they quickly diversified into other art forms such as painting and model making.
Though we do not know much about Gangaram’s background, by the time James Wales, the famous European painter arrived at Pune residency under patronage of Sir Malet, Gangaram has firmly established himself as the residency artist.
Before Wales’s arrival, we find Gangaram engaging in sketching and painting various Peshwa period subjects in his own distinct style, derived and influenced from miniature paintings of medieval times. However, one sees distinct use of water coloured rendered transparent at places, in his early paintings and highlighted with thick dark colour borders.
Some important sketches we know of include Indian wrestlers in various combating positions, who regularly participated in contests hosted by Rajas and princes across India. Pune itself hosts many “Talims” where wrestlers are trained in peculiar style of wrestling. Thus, it is possible that Gangaram had sketched and painted them from life experience. He has to his credit many personality sketches from the then medieval Maharashtra, including peculiarly dressed Kanphata Jogi (Naths), Muhammedan Fakir, Parsi priest, Mahanubhav practitioner, a man with string instrument, various contemporary saints and even dancing troupes of ‘nautch” girls.
The colours scheme utilised for most paintings is subtle and less in contrast, a big departure from bright and deep colour palette of medieval miniatures. The pencil sketching underneath is visibly seen. In most of his paintings, he has undersigned his full name and has dated it as per Hindu calendar.
Gangaram has painted some self-portraits depicting him, in red turban sitting with his Guru with rosary beads in his hand, from place near Pune. In another interesting painting of “Map of Parvati hill” he has sketched himself working on the painting in front of the Parvati hill on aisle with an attendant.
The 18th century witnessed a rise in studies about India. Through paintings, essays and scholarly studies, the British sought to document Indian architecture, sites, archaeological findings and other details. This pursuit of knowledge of India’s classical past was vital for British imperial expansion and led to the establishment of The Asiatic Society of Bengal in Calcutta.
With Wales arriving in Sir Malet’s camp, Gangaram in employment and subsequently joined by reluctant soldier and artist, Mr Robert Mabon, the artist team at Poona court was complete. A local artist named Josee joined from the then Portuguese Goa. Under the generous patronage and keen connoisseur eye of Sir Malet, the trio visited any places of artistic and historical importance to draw detailed drawings of the architecture and art of bygone days. Thus, the “Poona art school” bloomed under the relatively peaceful times of Anglo-Maratha treaty and Malet’s artistic ambitions.
Comparing the Gangaram’s paintings across timeline, one can observe the new techniques and considerable skills picked up by him in intuitive fashion, under the able guidance of Wales, whose scribbled elaborate notes on many of the paintings by Gangaram. Through such elaborate jottings on paintings and the journal entries maintained by Wales through his stay in India, one is able to understand the socio-historical context in a great detail, along the impressions of British about Maratha and Indian world of 18th century.
Malet persuaded the Peshwa to establish a school for drawing in the palace at Poona and Gangaram seems to have been trained there in European techniques.
Maratha minister, Nana Phadnis and young Peshwa, Sawai Madhavrao, whose fondness for all western curios and art, soon invited the “Poona Art School” to Peshwa court and commissioned several paintings and character sketches to be done by Wales. Robert Mabon and Gangaram played important role by assisting in initial sketches. It is also seen that on multiple instances Gangaram acted as local interpreter of things both Europeans found difficult to comprehend due to unfamiliarity.
Some of the important sites, where Gangaram assisted Wales and Mabon were Karla caves near Pune, Ellora caves at Aurangabad and Bhuleshwar temple at Yavat.
It is comforting to see Gangaram faithfully reproducing the engraved inscriptions in Brahmi scripts on rock cut pillars in his paintings. This was decades before the script was deciphered by British officer, Christian Lassen and finally by John Princep.
It was around early 1795, that Wales, Gangaram, Mabon and Josee set their course towards Ellora to document the caves and art in greater detail. As per Wales’s description, Gangaram seems to have provided running commentary about towns and villages that fell on the route and their importance. At the site of Ellora, one finds multiple paintings by Gangaram in clear linear perspectives.
A painting by Wales possibly depicts Gangaram sitting on ground and recreating the narrative panel from “Ravan ki Khai” cave. It is most probable that the identification of the narrative panels at Ellora were done by Gangaram through his understanding of Puranic mythologies for Wales and Mabon. Thus, he probably was one of the first artist and scholar to contribute to scholarship of our understanding of the Ellora caves.
In addition to the sketches of Indian architecture, Gangaram was employed by Malet to produce several illustrations of animals in Shikarkhana of Peshwas. The most famous of these illustrations is the life-like and well proportionate drawing of rhinoceros in possession of Sawai Madhavrao Peshwa. Gangaram has given accurate measurements of the animal in Indian “gaj” unit. From relatively small insects like praying mantis to exotic birds such as ostrich, to both common and rare animals such as lion, elephant, camel, lynx, variety of breed of dogs, Gangaram had drawn it all with expert accuracy. Wales has provided additional notes along with these paintings. These paintings prove to be excellent life study illustrations of Indian fauna.
Gangaram, who was well versed in clay modelling, had prepared 3D clay models of lion, rhinoceros and entire Peshwa’s menagerie. Though most of these art works are scattered in museums and universities abroad, recent efforts by Dr Holly Shaffer and Dr Uday Kulkarni have helped us piece the lesser-known narrative of “Poona Art School” in recent years.
We do not know much about what happened to Gangaram after Wales and Malet left the country, but these art works offer fascinating testimony to the artistic and scholarly contribution of eclectic native artist, Gangaram Chinamani Navgire Tambat.
Saili Palande-Datar is an indologist, environmentalist, history researcher and farmer. She can be reached @ sailikdatar@gmail.com
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