Bidar atlas was commissioned by a French officer, Colonel Jean Baptiste Gentil, who served as military adviser to the Nawab from 1763-75
Wow… what an interesting and artistically drawn. Don’t think it’s an art piece taken from any exhibition.
So far, the earliest unambiguous reference to Bidriware is in the Chahar Gulshan, a history written in Persian in 1759 AD. This includes a statistical account taken, on internal evidence, from an earlier compilation of about 1720 AD. Second volume of the Chahar Gulshan is ‘an account of five Subhas (administrative divisions) of Deccan’, one of the five being Bidar, referred to by its Bahmani and Mughal names.
A manuscript in the British Library has the following passage: ‘The subah of Mohammadabad, called Zafarabad (Bidar). In this subah the fine and rare Bidri vessels are made… The craftsmen of this place make them with such delicacy that even a painter could not imagine them’.
Bidar we know as a centre from Chahar Gulshan-it is also known from an illustration to an atlas produced in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh in (1770 AD) under the Nawab of Awadh (Oudh) Shuja-ud-Daula (Jalal-ud-din Haider) ruled between 1754-75 AD. His son Nawab Asaf-ud-Daula was a generous and sympathetic ruler, an inveterate builder of monuments and a discriminate patron of the arts.
One of the first famous British portrait painters to arrive in India was Tilley Kettle. His ability to produce excellent portraits led Shuja-ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Awadh, to commission portraits on a grand scale of himself and his sons.
Bidar atlas was commissioned by a French officer, Colonel Jean Baptiste Gentil, who served as military adviser to the Nawab from 1763-75. During this period he employed local artists to produce a series of illustrated works concerned with the political and social history of India.
The first was an atlas, now in the India Office Library, London, which includes a map of the subah of Bidar (see picture). Drawings are included on either side of the map: these show, for the most part, representatives of the different Sufi orders, in center of map several animals like tiger, lion and deer etc., is drawn showing the forest nearby, but also include a Bidri craftsman and the wares produced at Bidar. The bespectacled artisan at the bottom left of the page is engraving a floral pattern on to the side of a globular huqqua, his wife and pet parrot looking on.
The illustration is reinforced by having a caption: ‘Fabrique de Beder ou on incruste en or et argent’ (Beder workshop for inlaying in gold and silver). In the bottom right corner of the page is drawing of the types of wares produced: ‘vases incrustes’, or ‘inlaid vessels’. These include a globular huqqua (candle holder) on a stand, a bell-shaped huqqua, spittoons, boxes, a ewer and wash basin etc.
By Dr. Rehaman Patel
Courtesy:Karnataka Muslims
http://www.karnatakamuslims.com/portal/bidar-atlas-commissioned-by-colonel-jean-baptiste-gentil/