Princess Bamba Duleep Singh’s memories

Bamba’s collection in the Lahore Fort

Following the footprints of her ancestors, Bamba decided to visit India. She hired a Hungarian companion Marie Antoinette Gottesmann who later married a Sikh and went back to Hungary

Duleep Singh, the last Maharaja of Punjab, was taken to Britain as a child under the care of the East India Company, after the closure of the Second Anglo-Sikh War and the subsequent annexation of the Punjab on 29 March 1849. He was also kept away from his mother, Maharani Jindan, maybe because the world had already seen the power of the Sikhs in Punjab for many years. When he finally met his mother, he was told about his lost kingdom and religion after which he decided to reclaim it from British treachery. During his struggle he married and had six children, three sons and three daughters, from the first marriage.

Princess Bamba Sutherland, the eldest daughter of Maharaja Duleep Singh and grand-daughter of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, was born on 29 September 1869, in London and like her father; she was brought up as a Christian with British values. She was well educated and attended Oxford University. Queen Victoria was very kind towards her and prompted her to be a royal socialite. A true firebrand like her grandfather, she was very active politically in England and protested heavily for women’s right to vote.

Following the footprints of her ancestors, Bamba decided to visit India. She hired a Hungarian companion Marie Antoinette Gottesmann who later married a Sikh and went back to Hungary. Bamba settled alone in Lahore and eventually married the Principal of King Edward Medical College in Lahore – Dr David Waters Sutherland. It is said that she purchased a house in the locality of Model Town and named it ‘Gulzar’ where she had an exclusive garden of roses spread on an area of one kanal. She lived like an unknown in Lahore, the capital of the kingdom of her father and grandfather.

She was widowed in 1939 without any children. When she died her funeral was arranged by the United Kingdom Deputy High Commissioner in Lahore and with only a few people present she was quietly slipped into the soil on 10 March 1957. She was an important personality being the progeny of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, but unfortunately she was ignored and wasn’t given much importance, at least as much she deserved at that time. Located in Gora Kabristan on jail road, Lahore, the grave of the last of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s descendants still remains unknown, decked with flowers brought only by the descendants of Pir Karim Bakhsh from ‘Gulzar’, Model Town, Lahore, the residence of late Princess Bamba Sutherland. She requested to have following words inscribed on her grave:

The difference between royalty and servility vanishes

The moment the writing of destiny is encountered

If one opens the grave of a dead

None will be able to discern rich from poor

Princess Bamba left important historical items to her secretary, Pir Karim Bakhsh Supra of Lahore. The collection consisted of watercolour and paintings on ivory and a number of photographs and other articles. The collection was sold to the Pakistani government and today this collection can be seen in Princess Bamba’s Collection inside Lahore Fort near the curator’s office.

The place is not maintained and like her, the articles she left behind are also unnoticed and neglected. The Princess Bamba’s Collection is a Sikh gallery inside the Lahore Fort

The collection had extraordinary pictures and paintings of Sikh Darbar, Maharaja Duleep Singh, Prince Nau Nehal Singh, Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, Rani Jindan, Bahadur Shah Zafar, Maharaja Sher Singh’s Council, a model of Ranjeet Singh’s entourage on elephant and views of city at the bank of River Ravi. These are a must see, what a beautiful collection but sadly hidden from the public.

The place is not maintained and like her, the articles she left behind are also unnoticed and neglected. The Princess Bamba’s Collection is a Sikh gallery inside the Lahore Fort. It was closed for the general public a long time ago. Now it has been opened by the Archeology Department for the public, as the museums and galleries of Lahore Fort still are under the possession of the Archeology Department. The Walled City of Lahore Authority had invited a Hungarian Art Expert for the study of these paintings which are present in the Sikh Gallery. Hungarian expert, Dr Zoltán Dragon PhD, art historian came to Lahore and studied the paintings of The Court of Lahore, Dalip Singh, Bahadar Shah Zafar, Last Mughal Emperor, View of Kol Katta City, View of Banaras City, Sher Singh, Maharaja Ranjit Singh listening to the Granth being recited near the Golden Temple, Amritsar, Sher Singh in Council, Shahzada Jawan Bakhat, and Mirza Mughal.

The expert said the paintings’ condition is ambivalent. Although all of them are in a protected space, separated from visitors by a glass pane or a cordon, the windows in the wall opposite the entrance are not hermetically sealed; thus, works of art installed there are more exposed to external environmental impact, while extreme thermal fluctuation is also triggered by the wind coming into the room. Objects located closer to the entrance, protected more efficiently, are in a better state; these are the pieces entitled Maharaja Ranjit Singh listening to the Granth being recited near the Golden Temple, Amritsar and Sher Singh in Council. Even in the case of these works, paint losses appear at some places on the surface, and discolored varnish covers the images all over. The Court of Lahore is more damaged, partly due to its size: resulting from its weigh, the lower third of the canvas got loose, cupped; moreover, flaking typically appears on this area. At some places, paint losses take up 1-2cm of the surface. Traces of earlier treatments are also to be found on the canvas. We may state that the fort of Lahore houses ten of Ágoston Schoefft’s works, and that the master of the paintings is, indeed, Ágoston Schoefft, who executed the pieces between either 1841-1842, or 1841/2-1855, based on his travel pieces. The two dates mark his journey to Lahore and the 1855 exhibition in Vienna, with the finished paintings on view. Ágoston (August) Schoefft’s (1809-1888) paintings held in Lahore, Pakistan, have long been recorded in specified literature. It is only these texts that tell us about Schoefft’s life in Lahore. One of the most important sources is the memoir of the maharaja’s physician, Martin Honigberger. Schoefft left Kol Katta for Lahore in June 1840.

Now you can well imagine the importance of the paintings which Bamba inherited. Previously the conditions of this gallery were poor with no proper descriptions on items. There were no lights for the gallery and it was closed for the public. The good part is that it is now opened for anyone visiting the fort. The plans for improving the present condition of the gallery and conserving the artifacts is in process and I hope that in very near future it will be a famous point inside Lahore Fort. Many Sikh Yatrees visiting Lahore are also being taken to this gallery now. I would suggest all my readers to visit it once!