British India produced many genius orientalists, but few with such innate talent and breadth as Mr. James Prinsep. He showed great aptitude for drawing and draughtsmanship at an early age but had weak eyesight and so was directed away from the visual arts to a career as a metallurgist and assayist. It was as an assayist working for the British Mint that he ventured to India and took a position in Benares. There he became deeply interested in early Indian coins which led him to decipher the Kharosthi and Brahmi scripts, the feat of scholarship for which he is most renowned.
But, in Benares, he also made extensive drawings and engravings of the sacred city and accomplished much else in both the humanities and the sciences. His drawings and lithographs are some of the finest ever made by an orientalist artist, a sublime record of British Benares. In an age where our intellectual elites are poisoned with post-colonial resentment, however, his genius and achievements have been forgotten. Few remember James Prinsep now, though he would have been an extraordinary character in any age. His contribution to the Benares and to its people was profound. More generally, he made a substantial contribution to a wide range of disciplines - a polymath of great imagination and talent.
The life and times of this unsung hero - and the life and times of Benares, the most sacred city of the Hindoos - is presented in a charming documentary entitled The Benares of James Princep, thus:
The present writer, having moved along from a week-long sojourn in Boodh Gaya, is now residing for a while in mystical Benares and is privileged to spend his days - especially his mornings - strolling along the ghats on the banks of the Ganges. He is pleased to report that, although less treed, spotted with graffiti and advertising, and suffering the usual cement degradations of Indian modernity, little of substance has changed on the riverfront since the time of James Prinsep. The city is thousands of years old, one of the oldest continually occupied cities in the world. The old city sections with its narrow streets - as opposed to modern commercial extensions - have remained more or less intact since the time of the British Raj. Some things, such as the open-air cremation grounds on the river banks, have remained unchanged since Vedic times.
The following are some of Mr. Prinsep's engravings of the ghats and other features of Benares. Readers should click on the image for a larger version of each...
James Prinsep became ill in India and returned to Britain to recover. Alas, he died a young and untimely death in 1840. News of his demise was greeted with consternation throughout British India, and a beautiful monument was built in his honour beside the Hoogley River in Calcutta. The present author has spent time there too, and along the Prinsep Ghat which is, without question, one of the loveliest parts of Calcutta today. It is now gratifying to be in Benares to see first hand the faithfulness of Prinsep's renderings of the architecture of this ancient and most extraordinary of cities.
Yours
Harper McAlpine Black
But, in Benares, he also made extensive drawings and engravings of the sacred city and accomplished much else in both the humanities and the sciences. His drawings and lithographs are some of the finest ever made by an orientalist artist, a sublime record of British Benares. In an age where our intellectual elites are poisoned with post-colonial resentment, however, his genius and achievements have been forgotten. Few remember James Prinsep now, though he would have been an extraordinary character in any age. His contribution to the Benares and to its people was profound. More generally, he made a substantial contribution to a wide range of disciplines - a polymath of great imagination and talent.
The life and times of this unsung hero - and the life and times of Benares, the most sacred city of the Hindoos - is presented in a charming documentary entitled The Benares of James Princep, thus:
The description of the movie:
James Prinsep landed in india in 1819.
He came to work in the mint as an essay master for the East India Company but destiny had bigger plans.
Truly a man for all seasons, his genius blossomed as an artist,linguist,architect,translator,writer,engineer and scientist.
He died at the age of 40.
His brilliance has been ignored by the world.
May this documentary shed light on him and the holy city that he loved.
Readers can find a trailer and instalment of the movie here.
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The following are some of Mr. Prinsep's engravings of the ghats and other features of Benares. Readers should click on the image for a larger version of each...
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The Prinsep Monument in Calcutta which, regrettably, is now dwarfed by the new bridge across the Hoogley.
Yours
Harper McAlpine Black
Loved this piece on Princep's Benares. Thank you for sharing. Indeed it is a tragedy that the many contributions of a genius like Princep should have been forgotten in the land he loved. I salute the unsung hero.
ReplyDeleteI have known of this portfolio since 1980's through a visit to Asiatic Library in Kolkata. Apart from the great engravings of each ghat, one of the most prized drawings is a fold-out plan of a crow-quill drawing of all the ghats with names and notes (about 75 cm. long as I remember it now). I congratulate you, Mr. Black upon placing this invaluable work for people to enjoy and scholars to ponder upon. I am sure, one day you will place all the drawings including the framework sketches at the end of the book and the Badwa Mangal (Correct?) Festival of Music on the Ganges!
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