Coat of arms, and calling out the brave

Before the arrival of photography, through the 18th and 19th centuries, numerous artists from Europe, especially Britain, travelled across India and created a substantial record. Apart from the professional artists, there were several skilled amateurs. For example, Emily Eden, sister of Governor-General Lord Auckland, carried her brush to various places and in 1844, published a folio titled ‘Portraits of the Princes and People of India’. This included the famous portrait of Maharaja Ranjit Singh seated on a chair.

Some of the professional artists were persons of varied talent. They moved with ease between portraits and landscapes, to sculpture and architecture. The writer Rudyard Kipling’s father, Lockwood, who became principal of the Mayo School of Art and curator of the museum at Lahore, was one such person. Among other things, he designed the friezes at Mumbai’s Crawford Market. Lockwood also created the coat of arms for Mayo College in Ajmer, founded in 1875.

Till the closing years of the 19th century, the only well-recognised coats of arms were the Portuguese Royal Arms used in Goa, and those of the British East India Company and its presidencies of Bengal, Madras and Bombay. In 1877, the Proclamation Durbar was held in Delhi. An event of considerable expense, this drew justified criticism as large parts of India were in the grip of yet another devastating famine.

The Durbar was to proclaim Queen Victoria as the Empress of India. Apart from the Viceroy, Lord Lytton, and British officials, this was attended by numerous Indian princes. For the occasion, Lockwood Kipling designed some heraldic emblems and banners — and also gave the overall architectural design of the amphitheatre where the event was to be held.

For the occasion, Robert Taylor of the Bengal Civil Service, who was an amateur heraldic designer, created European style coats of arms for several Indian princes; these were subsequently published in a volume titled ‘The Princely Armory’. Among the dozens credited to Taylor are the armorial bearings of influential princely states like Mysore, Hyderabad, Sikkim, Bhopal, Jammu and Kashmir, Patiala and Jind. Today, while these coats of arms have no legal standing, they hide in plain sight in old palaces, on stationery and tableware of the former princes of India — including in the properties that are now hotels. (Those rulers who did not have the honour of receiving these bearings in this Durbar or on other similar occasions, made their own).

Based on the British heraldic tradition, another chapter of artistry had opened, and came to be swiftly adopted.

Before this, barring a couple of isolated examples, the standards and symbols used in India were relatively simple. The Gupta Empire had the mythical Garuda as their emblem; the Suryavanshi rulers of Rajasthan, as may be expected, had a resplendent sun as theirs. The imperial standard of the Mughal court was the ‘Alam’, that symbolised its power and authority — this depicted a lion and the sun on a base of green. On the other hand, the English heraldic tradition was far more complex where even a simple escutcheon or shield was divided and each symbol had a meaning of ancestral association.

The extraordinary coat of arms of Undivided Punjab was also designed around this time and is believed to have been done under direction of the College of Arms in London. A splendid example is in the dining room of Himachal’s Raj Bhavan. This building, Barnes’ Court in Shimla, had served as the residence of the Governors of Punjab from 1877, the year of the Durbar. (Some parts of the building are believed to have been designed by Lockwood Kipling and his protege, Bhai Ram Singh).

Simplified, this elegant shield has five wavy lines depicting Punjab’s rivers and over these, is the rising sun signifying prosperity. This is crowned by a lion on a wreath. In Barnes’ Court, the supporters of the shield are visibly a Sikh and a Punjabi Mussalman. By their bearing and the swords they hold, they are soldiers. The motto ‘Crescat e Fluviis’ — “May it grow from the rivers”, or loosely, “Prosperity comes from the rivers” — appears below this. A similar crest was located over the main gate of Ellerslie, which was the secretariat of Punjab and is now with the Himachal government; this was covered when a passage was made to span a road.

In Barnes’ Court, the fireplace does not settle for just this. There is a crowned helmet and visor below which is a coiled snake. On the sides there is a Shimla touch in carvings of a group of monkeys.

At a time when Punjab, Himachal and Uttarakhand have been devastated by floods, the line that spans the lower section of this remarkable piece of carved history seems appropriate. This reads: ‘Forti et difficile’ — “The brave surmount difficulty.”

— The writer is a Shimla-based author