Introduction: The Picturesqueness of Ancient and Noble Races • 1. Durbar: Ceremonies Fit For a Ruler • 2. The Jewels in their Crowns: Heirs, Heirs Apparent and Heirlooms • 3. By Elephant, Horse or Rolls Royce: The Maharajas at Play • 4. Diwan-i-Khas and Diwan-i-Am: The Fortresses and Palaces of the Maharajas
A spectacular collection of images of Princely India, chronicling the extraordinary wealth of the Maharajas and their families
Andrew Robinson has written more than 25 books on the arts and
sciences. They include Lost Languages: The Enigma of the World's
Undeciphered Scripts, India: A Short History and Earthshock, which
won the Association of Earth Science Editors Outstanding
Publication Award, plus Earth-Shattering Events . A regular
contributor to such magazines as Current World Archaeology, History
Today, The Lancet, Nature and Science, he has also been literary
editor of The Times Higher Education Supplement and a visiting
fellow at the University of Cambridge.
Sumio Uchiyama is well known in Japan as a portrait photographer of
cinema stars. He travelled throughout the Indian subcontinent in
his search for Maharajas who maintain a traditional way of life
Uchiyama, known for his pictures of Japanese movie stars, approaches his subject here in the same slavish manner to document, in full color, the riches of Indian maharajas, from the thrones they sit on to the Rollses they ride in. Though well reproduced, his photographs are resoundingly trite. Since Uchiyama offers no opinion on princely pomp, pomp looks exactly as it always does: diamond nose rings dangle from aristocratic nostrils, elephants preside over nocturnal ceremonies, and gold leaf-encrusted palaces loom timelessly. Only occasionally does the photographer find a telling image, as in the shots of turbanned patriarchs gloating over their splendid automobiles. Robinson's ( The Coasts of India ) text, too, covers familiar groundsurveying royal ceremonies, jewels, princely recreation and palaceswithout telling a full story. (Nov.)
Ask a Question About this Product More... |