How M.S. Randhawa Built Chandigarh Museum’s Art Collection

Mohinder Singh Randhawa (1909-1986) was an Indian Civil Services officer. In the 1950s, stationed in post-partition Punjab, he travelled across regions in the Western Himalayas, in search of paintings produced in and for the courts of early modern kingdoms. These paintings are commonly referred to, as ‘Pahari paintings’.

Over 2000 “miniature” paintings, acquired by Randhawa on behalf of the Government of Punjab form the cornerstone of the city’s first art museum – the Government Museum & Art Gallery, Chandigarh.

Among these are some of the most important examples of early modern Pahari painting – including works attributed to the famous artist Manaku of Guler (c. 1700-1760).

Mian Gopal Singh of Guler (left) playing chess with Pandit Dinamani Raina (right). Ascribed to Pandit Seu of Guler. Dated ca.1720–1725.

Rahu, 1720-50, Pahari – Himachal Pradesh

Folio from the Gita Govinda series, dated 1730 CE, attributed to Manaku of Guler

“When paintings are collected, they must find a home where they can be stored and also displayed. This led me to the founding of Chandigarh museum, the finest museum in India with the largest collection of Pahari paintings.”

– M. S. Randhawa, Indian Paintings: Exploration, Research, and Publications (Government Museum & Art Gallery, 1986), ix.

Randhawa meticulously chronicled his travels and encounters with royal families and their art collection through letters and publications.

These letters, archived at the reference library of the Chandigarh Museum, and his published works, document the state of royal collections. Additionally, they serve as a record of how Randhawa painstakingly tracked and collected paintings over several years.

“…I have been able to discover some important collections of Kangra paintings which are of considerable historical importance, and also posses artistic merit…The owners of these collection, mostly Rajas or their relations are hard up on account of stoppage of their Jagirs. As a result they are bringing out their collections in the market. If we do not purchase them, there is a danger that these may go out of the Panjab to the Art Galleries in USA. The best Kangra paintings are in fact found in the Art Gallery at Boston and in the British Museum, London. We must preserve these paintings in the Punjab as they represent our richest cultural heritage”

– Letter dated 7 August 1953 in Purchase of Paintings: 1953-1954, Vol. 3, 12-14. Kept in the Reference Library of the Government Museum and Art Gallery (GMAG), Chandigarh.

At the time of Randhawa’s travels, just after India’s independence, many royal families were selling their inherited collections of paintings. Art dealers and independent collectors purchased most of these and further sold them to collections in other parts of the world.

Randhawa recognised the importance of these paintings. He wanted to retain them in India for future generations so that they could learn about the rich cultural heritage of their nation. Therefore, he acquired several paintings from the inherited family collections of Raja Baldev Singh of Guler, Mian Nihal Singh of Chamba, Raja Devindar Singh of Nurpur, among others, for the museum.

Randhawa also documented paintings in royal collections – through scholarly publications.

In addition to being an officer and art collector, Randhawa was also a prolific writer. He published books on various subjects – horticulture, botany, governance – including his experience of rehabilitating refugees in the aftermath of India’s partition. Articles, books, and monographs on Pahari painting, however, formed the core of his extensive bibliography.

Randhawa was not always able to buy all the paintings that he found for the museum, due to budget and other official constraints. But his documentation of what he saw is a useful resource, since most of these collections have completely dispersed over time. In his many publications on Pahari painting, Randhawa documented his encounters with collections still retained by royal families.

In Basohli Painting (1959), Randhawa wrote about a series of 270 Ramayana paintings created in the late 17^th century.

These paintings, in the collection of Raja Raghubir Singh of Sangri (or Shangri), in the Kullu valley, were soon purchased by art dealers and collectors around the world. Some folios of this series remain in India because the National Museum in New Delhi acquired them.

In 1953, Randhawa published his first paper on the subject of Pahari painting in Mulk Raj Anand’s journal Marg.

Anand and Randhawa were also friends who often travelled together searching for art. At times, they were accompanied by other scholars and collectors such as W. G. Archer, Gopi Krishna Kanoria, etc.

Researching and collecting : Rajasthan’s royal collections

By the end of the 1950s Randhawa had published extensively on Pahari art. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting then commissioned him for a volume on Rajasthani painting.

In 1961, as research for the book, Randhawa travelled to Rajasthan and visited collections in Alwar, Jaipur, Udaipur, Kishangarh, Jodhpur, Kotah, and Bundi, selecting paintings to include in his book and to acquire for the museum.

He had already purchased paintings for the Chandigarh Museum from the personal collection of Kanwar Sangram Singh, the director of the City Palace Museum, Jaipur, in 1957-1958. For his research too, he relied on Singh’s connections to royal collections in Rajasthan. More Rajasthani paintings from Singh’s collection were acquired for the museum in Chandigarh, soon after Randhawa’s visit in 1961.

Though Randhawa was most enamoured with paintings from the Kangra Valley, he also added works to other areas of the Chandigarh museum’s collection.

For the collection of modern and contemporary art, for example, he acquired the work of prominent artists like M.F. Hussain, Avinash Chandra, Tyeb Mehta, Amrita Sher-Gil, among others. With some artists – Sobha Singh, Satish Gujral, and Nicholas Roerich – Randhawa formed a closer relationship than others and bought a larger number of their paintings for the museum.

Randhawa’s publications, together with his interactions with contemporary collectors and art dealers, serve as records of a time when the art market was expanding rapidly to meet growing demand for Indian paintings in other parts of the world.

In this context, Randhawa’s publications and archives establish him not only as the founder and collector of the Chandigarh Museum but also as a key figure in the broader network of people who shaped collections and the movement of art in post-independence India. 

This article is part of our Open Knowledge series, supported by Wikimedia Foundation