Join us for a glittering evening inspired by Diwali, India's festival of lights. Be transported to the fragrant gardens and opulent palaces of Rajasthan as you enjoy a festive dinner and private viewing of Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur. Meet His Highness Gaj Singh II, the maharaja of Marwar-Jodhpur, whose ancestral collections are featured in the exhibition. Later in the evening, take part in our Garden and Cosmos Live Auction of fabulous India-themed luxuries. (More...)

Celebrate the opening of the exhibition Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur with two days of music, dance, storytelling, food, and children's activities. The semi-desert region of Rajasthan in northern India is home to dynamic traditions of performing arts and oral history. Come experience one of India's most vibrant regional cultures.

Event list.

The exhibition Garden and Cosmos presents recently discovered paintings of classic Hindu stories and visions of the cosmic universe. In the classroom create your own miniature diorama that combines elements from these unique paintings and your vivid imagination.

Enjoy a classroom slide show of the palace gardens at Nagaur in India, and the use an activity book to explore the exhibition Garden and Cosmos. Discover how artists interpreted these gardens in their paintings, and then create your own miniature Nagaur palace garden to take home.

Exhibition curator Debra Diamond discusses the historical, political, and religious contexts surrounding recently rediscovered monumental manuscripts in Jodhpur. She explores the influence of hatha yoga metaphysics and bhakti devotionalism on imagery, scale, and aesthetics, and describes how these exceptional paintings were viewed at the royal court.

Experience the magical world of the Ramayana epic with performances from the Devi Dance Theater. Young dancers recreate the lively battles between Hanuman's monkey army and the demon-king Ravana, as well as stories of the birth of Sita. Chat with the dancers to learn how these performances relate to the manuscript paintings featured in Garden and Cosmos.

Join Dr. Vijay (William) Pinch, professor of history at Wesleyan University, on an excursion through Garden and Cosmos to examine the historical practice of hatha yoga and the influence of Nath yogis on political power in nineteenth-century India.

Dr. Philip Lutgendorf, professor of Hindi and modern Indian studies at the University of Iowa, discusses relationships among visual, textual, and performed versions of Indian stories, including episodes from the Hindi Ramayana of Tulsidas. He is the author of The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas (1991) and Hanuman’s Tale: The Messages of a Divine Monkey (2007).

The Blossoms Rained, and There Was Light
Saturday, November 15, 2008, 3:00 pm, Meyer Auditorium
Join Devi Dance Theater for retellings of classical stories about the Hindu deities Rama, Krishna, and Shiva. Hear poems from the Hindi Ramayana of Tulsidas and see how the culture of sixteenth-century India still influences contemporary choreography.

Free tickets required.

Kumar Shahani, one of the most significant filmmakers working in India today, explores cultural memories embedded in classical Indian art forms, texts, and objects. His oeuvre is considered alongside that of renowned directors Pier Paolo Pasolini, Andrei Tarkovsky, Stanley Kubrick, Jacques Rivette, and others whose works are similarly entwined with the visual arts.

The Freer presents four of Shahani's films in conjunction with the Sackler exhibition Garden and Cosmos. Descriptions adapted from film notes by Kathryn Weir and Rachel O'Reilly for the Australian Cinematheque.

The Khayal Saga
Friday, October 24. 7 pm
Legends and stories surrounding the vocal tradition of the khayal, a major element of Indian classical music, are woven together in a film that is internationally recognized as one of the most important documents of the tradition. India / 1988 / 103 min. / Hindi and Urdu with English subtitles

The Wave
Sunday, October 26. 2 pm
Amid India's industrialization, themes of conflict and betrayal erupt when different worlds collide. Shahani's epic cinematic form, in which ancient myths unfold within a realist mode, is fully realized here. India / 1984 / 171 min. / Hindi with English subtitles

The Bamboo Flute
Friday, October 31. 7 pm
In this tribute to the flute's importance to Indian civilization, Shahani depicts the instrument as a primordial interpreter of natural sounds. Hariprasad Chaurasia and other flute masters are featured. India / 2000 / 84 min. / Hindi and Tamil with English subtitles

Kasba
Sunday, November 2. 2 pm
In this adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story "In the Hollow" (1900), Shahani uses traditional miniature painting from Kangra as a framing device to explore themes of India's industrialization and the emancipation of women. India / 1990 / 115 min. / Hindi, Urdu, and Punjabi with English subtitles