Shubha Mudgal’s ode to craft

Shubha Mudgal performed an unusual concert linking music to painting and weaving

The opulent durbar hall of the Lukshmi Vilas Palace in Baroda was the venue of an unusual event that combined painting, textile weaving and music. A city known for its patronage of art, Maharaja Sayajirao Gaekwad established Baroda’s first music school in February, 1896, and a college of music in the mid-1920s. By the 1930s, the Baroda court boasted the finest musicians. Ustad Faiyaz Khan of the Agra gharana took pride in his Baroda connect. The first all-India music conference, attended by more than 400 musicians and experts, took place here in 1916. This cultural legacy lent more sheen to Shubha Mudgal’s recent concert at the durbar hall, where she rendered songs linked to the theme of five chosen Raja Ravi Varma paintings.

The celebrated Ravi Varma spent 14 years in Baroda and some of his finest works were conceived in the palace studio, which still stands on the grounds. Hyderabad-based designer Gaurang Shah has recreated 34 of these paintings on Jamdani saris.