Maharaja Man Singh of Jodhpur

British accounts of the court of Man Singh (r. 1803-1843) tell us that its splendor imitated the great imperial court at Delhi. Behind the lavish appearances, however, lay a troubled ruler and kingdom. Man Singh's reign was marked by numerous internal power struggles and by such external threats as that posed by the army of Amir Khan Pindari, an Afghan marauder who appears in the painting to your left. The murder of Man Singh's spiritual advisor in 1815 and the mysterious death of the maharaja's only son a short time later led Man Singh to launch a violent campaign against his enemies. It was at this time that he appointed Fateh Raj Singhvi, depicted in the portrait to your right, to the post of chief minister. The chaos in Marwar paved the way for British intervention and by 1839, the kingdom was in colonial hands. Man Singh chose to live as a religious recluse until his death in 1843.

In depicting Maharaja Man Singh in profile, with a halo around his head and a jeweled turban ornament in his right hand, the painter of this portrait was following conventions that had been popularized owing to the tastes of the Muslim emperors of South Asia in the 1600s.