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Title:
Volume 48 - Issue 4
Date:
1997
Table of contents:
- p. Front and Back [Advertisements]: [Photographs -- Paintings of Bombay people, early 20th century]
- p. 10-11 [Also in - Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives; Title - Introduction; ISBN:81-85026-37-8, Pages - 13-14; Ed. Pauline Rohatgi, Pheroza Godrej, and Rahul Mehrotra]: Pal, Pratapaditya, From the General Editor's Desk [Editorial] | The editor explains how both the country and society have changed dramatically since Marg magazine's inception 50 years ago. As Marg was launched in Bombay in October 1946, it was felt that the city should be the focus of at least one of the issues published in Marg's Golden Jubilee year. It happens to coincide with a watershed year for the city -- 1996 is the year the state legislators decided to change the city's name from Bombay to Mumbai. The present volume captures the changing character, both physically and symbolically, of the city as it inexorably altered from Bombay to Mumbai.
- p. 12-27 [Also in - Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives; ISBN:81-85026-37-8, Pages - 24-39; Ed. Pauline Rohatgi, Pheroza Godrej, and Rahul Mehrotra]: Gole, Susan, When We Get There: Bombay in Early Maps | The topographical depictions of Bombay since the earliest maps (from the 17th century when this island formed part of the dowry the Portuguese princess Catherine of Braganza brought to Charles II of England), are detailed. Surviving rough but valuable initial sketches are few, as illustrated here, but by the end of the 18th century, detailed hydrographic surveys were being made all along the coasts, and published. Once the English took control of Bombay from the Portuguese, large manuscript plans of the fortifications were recorded. It was not until the 19th century that plans showing the lines of roads and the locations of important buildings appeared. Surveyors were assigned official projects, and "views" which took into account numerous changes and developments in the city, were commissioned.
- p. 28-45 [Also in - Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives; ISBN:81-85026-37-8, Pages - 40-57; Ed. Pauline Rohatgi, Pheroza Godrej, and Rahul Mehrotra]: Edney, Matthew H., Defining a Unique City: Surveying and Mapping Bombay after 1800 | Events in the early 19th century, necessitating a good cadastral survey of the Bombay islands, are discussed at some length. At about the time that George Buist published his hand-coloured map -- in about 1850 -- drawing on any exposures of the islands' structure that he could find, the Indian government established the Geological Survey of India. Its studies resulted in a very detailed and much larger-scale map of Bombay. Reclamation of the interior of the islands and expansion of their urban limits later called for a second cadastral survey. Thus, a necessary component of these more final general maps was the precise fixing and registration of property boundaries. Bombay was the first city in western India to industrialize and extend far beyond its historic centre -- and the survey of 1914-18 was the last undertaken of it under British rule.
- p. 46-65 [Also in - Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives; ISBN:81-85026-37-8, Pages - 58-77; Ed. Pauline Rohatgi, Pheroza Godrej, and Rahul Mehrotra]: Rohatgi, Pauline, Early Impressions of the Islands: James Forbes and James Wales in Bombay 1766-95 | The first artists to attempt realistic impressions of the Bombay islands, executed systematically on the spot and not from imagination, were James Forbes and James Wales. Between 1766 and 1795 the two Scotsmen made excursions or "jaunts" through the landscape for different reasons – Forbes for pleasure and to embellish his letters, Wales as a commercial venture for the print market. The author offers biographical accounts each artist, which provide interesting insights into the influences shaping their work. As 8th-century perceptions, their pictures and descriptions form an important early episode in the topographical history of Bombay, especially when compared with subsequent images.
- p. 66-81 [Also in - Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives; ISBN:81-85026-37-8, Pages - 78-93; Ed. Pauline Rohatgi, Pheroza Godrej, and Rahul Mehrotra]: Godrej, Pheroza, Whither the Towers? The Changed View of Malabar Hill | The changed outline of Malabar Hill, rising over 85 metres from the sea, from the 16th century to the last decade of the 20th century, is traced. Striking landmarks punctuating its environs, such as the temples, the Banganga Tank, Government House, All Saints' Church, the Hanging Gardens, and Towers of Silence remain, albeit altered beyond recognition. Rocky gardens cut out of steep cliffs and vast expanses of greenery and woods, and old bungalows have unfortunately been largely lost in a congested atmosphere today. Though nowhere near the predominant landscape of earlier times, the two large areas still providing a pair of lungs for the crowded city are the Raj Bhavan and the combined space of Hanging Gardens and the Towers of Silence.
- p. 82-90: Barrett, Douglas, Early Chola Bronzes in the Norton Simon Museum | Though very fine bronzes of the Early Chola period (866-1014) exist in museums outside India, the Norton Simon Museum is perhaps unique in that it can represent each of the three phases of Early Chola period art with one, and sometimes more than one, masterpiece. The late scholar Douglas Barrett wrote this erudite article for the late Norton Simon soon after his visit to the museum in Pasadena, California in 1978. Mr Barrett being an authority on Chola bronzes, his comments on the selected masterpieces are of value to Indian art historians.
- p. 102-103: Marg, Marg Celebrates 50 Years | Four special titles published in 1996-97 commemorate Marg's 50th anniversary year. An auspicious start was made with His Holiness the Dalai Lama releasing "On the Path to Void: Buddhist Art of the Tibetan Realm". The closing issue of the 50th year, "Bombay to Mumbai: Changing Perspectives", is a tribute to the city of Marg's birth. This year marks another milestone for Marg—the production of a film series, "Purva Uttara: Past Forward", on heritage sites, monuments around India. Marg looks ahead to the next fifty years, continuing the tradition of bringing an awareness of India's rich artistic heritage to a wider audience.