
Manik Bagh: A forgotten marvel of modernist architecture

Summary
An ongoing show at MAP, Bengaluru, highlights the transcultural exchange of ideas that resulted in the architectural masterpiece of Manik BaghAs soon as you enter Eckart Muthesius and Manik Bagh: Pioneering Modernism in India at the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP), Bengaluru, you get a sense of having travelled back in time. The show takes you through a story that had its genesis in the halls at Oxford University, avant-garde ateliers in Paris, and factories in Germany at the cusp of the Great Depression. A selection of 50 vintage black-and-white photographs, watercolours, architectural drawings and design studies highlight how all these aspects came together thousands of miles away at Manik Bagh, Indore. Loosely translated as the ‘Garden of Rubies’, the palace emerged as an unlikely collaboration forged in the tumultuous 1920s.
The exhibition, developed in partnership with the Asian Art Museum in Berlin and the German Embassy, has been curated by the head of the museum, Raffael Dedo Gadebusch. The first section introduces the viewers to the main characters of the story—Yeshwant Rao Holkar II and his wife Sanyogita Devi of the erstwhile royal family of Indore, and the German architect Eckart Muthesius. The highlights of this segment include two Man Rays—a half-length seated portrait of Yeshwant Rao Holkar II taken in 1930, and the other of the royal couple as they pose happily in 1933. “Manik Bagh is the fruit of a friendship between two young men, who met while studying in Oxford. The open-minded Yeshwant Rao was keen to build a modernist palace and asked Eckart to do some sketches," says Gadebusch.
The exhibition critically examines the conflicting reference to the Art Deco style. “People are wrong when they refer to its architecture as Art Deco. It is the very first modernist building in South Asia and was designed and built in the spirit of the Bauhaus movement," asserts Gadebusch. “Further, there is coming together of art, design, architecture and landscape. In German, we call it gesamtkunstkerk which implies the synthesis of all the arts."
Also read: Why India is attracting rare Salvador Dali art

Muthesius’s purist dedication to Bauhaus, however, led to one major conflict between form and function. The flat roof that he designed led to flooding during the monsoons and had to be replaced with a traditional sloped one. A photograph taken by Muthesius, on display, reveals the lengths to which the architect went to hide his frustration. “Shortly after the completion, for an exhibition in Mumbai in 1934, he retouched the negatives to show the building with a flat roof rather than how it actually looked," reveals Gadebusch.
The curator acknowledges that the Holkars did collect design pieces and furniture that were Art Deco. French writer and collector HenriPierre Roché was an influential advisor to the royal couple when they visited Paris. He mediated their purchase of furniture by Émile-Jacques Ruhlmann, an eminent Art Deco designer. Roché also introduced the couple to Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancuşi. In a blackand-white photograph taken by Muthesius of the Maharaja’s living room, one can see Brancuşi’s Bird in Space in bronze in a corner. Regarded as one of the most iconic sculptures of the 20th century, two more in white and black marble were commissioned by Yeshwant Rao from the sculptor.
Other photographs in the exhibition reveal works by noted designers like Eileen Gray, Le Corbusier, Marcel Breuer, Louis Sognot, Pierre Jeanneret and Charlotte Alix. Muthesius himself designed most of the interiors. “He was so much more than just an architect … what makes him also stand out is his use of innovative materials—like nickel silver for fittings, paint mixed with glass particles instead of wallpaper, faux leather for seating upholstery… and his sculptural lamp designs and fixtures," adds Arnika Ahldag, head of curation and exhibitions at MAP.
Also read: When contemporary art rubs shoulders with ancient artefacts
After the completion of Manik Bagh, Muthesius stayed on as the head of the Urban Planning and Redevelopment Department of the former Indore State. The final section of the exhibition gives a peek into other ambitious projects he envisioned for his royal patron, many of which remained unfulfilled. Remarkable among them are the two of his design drawings on display for a house boat, intended for use as part of a summer home for the royal family in Kashmir. Unfortunately, Manik Bagh and its residents did not get their happily ever after. Four years after it was completed, Sanyogita Devi died at the age of 23 after post- surgery complications in Switzerland in 1937 and the grief-stricken Yeshwant Rao lost interest. Earlier he had invited Brancuşi to create a “temple of love and peace" in the garden at Manik Bagh, which was also ultimately abandoned. Muthesius was forced to return to Germany when World War II started.
After Yeshwant Rao died in 1961, Manik Bagh slid into obscurity, before resurfacing in the public eye in the 1970s just before the central government revoked royal privileges. The descendants auctioned off many of the iconic furniture pieces in a sale in Monte Carlo in 1980. The premises are now used by the central government as the office for the tax department. Meanwhile, the show tries hard to exalt Muthesius’ visionary ideas and multifaceted talents, but it does not offer any insights as to why his career faded into oblivion, like the palace he helped create. However, the exhibition does allow the visitor to appreciate the transcultural exchange of ideas that gave India an avant-garde architecture masterpiece, and in doing so, also appeals for Manik Bagh’s urgent conservation.
The exhibition can be viewed at MAP Bengaluru till 30 March, Tuesday – Sunday, 10 AM – 6.30 pm.
Anindo Sen is an independent art and culture writer.