It is a strange and interesting story that at the far ends of India there were two people who cared to preserve everyday objects from the past. The Ashutosh Museum of Indian Art in Calcutta and the Dinkar Kelkar Museum in Pune both carry the names of their founders. Both these museums, though fairly rundown now, have played a significant role in reminding us of what life was like in the past. Either due to lack of funds or from genuine lack of interest on the part of the present caretakers, both museums now look derelict.

This is a pity because both museums have an extraordinary collection of objects that were used in our homes in the last two centuries. The significance of such museums is immense. What is most important is their reminding us that at one time in our lives, even in the humblest of our homes, aesthetics and beauty could be found in everyday things.

The Ashutosh Museum, set up in 1937, was named after the great educationist, Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee. The museum was originally located at the back of Calcutta University, in the Senate House which was unfortunately demolished in 1961, to be replaced by a monstrous, characterless, two-storied structure in which the museum is now housed.

The museum has classic examples of donated sculptures obtained from archaeological excavations in Bengal. Apart from historical objects, the museum holds an exemplary collection of crafts, some of which are still produced and used in Bengal today. The value of this collection is that it tells us about skilled craftsmen and the continuity of our artistic traditions that bring delight and fun into our lives. Amongst the crafts products in the Ashutosh Museum are ritual objects, toys and dolls. There are painted scrolls along the walls and examples of patachitra.

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In the Dinkar Kelkar Museum there are wonderful examples of the bold and beautiful Citrakathi paintings of Maharashtra. India has a long and amazing oral history tradition, and every region had its own distinct style of story- telling with painted scrolls or puppets. The storyteller would go from one village to another entrancing children and elders alike with his narration, music, poetry and his scroll full of illustrations. The storyteller would arrive at the village and announce his programme. Then, seated under a tree, or in the village square or in the courtyard of the patron’s house, he would pull out his painted scroll and narrate a story.

The scroll — divided like cartoon strips, with each frame depicting an episode of the narrative — would be unrolled for viewing with enough drama and pauses to excite curiosity, like a television serial today. The stories were usually well known to the villagers, but it was the art of story-telling, and the storyteller’s ability to blend in a contemporary commentary on politics and social life that kept audiences awake most of the night.

Sharing a joke

Another late night favourite was playing cards, and the Ashutosh Museum has a wonderful collection of hand-painted playing cards. Some cards are hardly five centimetres in diameter and have decorative numbers and figures corresponding to their suit and value, each one individually painted. Objects like these are intriguing to a historian, for when one sees the individually-painted cards, one asks questions like who invented this game. Some say that card-playing was invented in India and was taken to other parts of the world by gypsies and Arab traders.

The Dinkar Kelkar Museum is a treasure house of objects that would have been found in homes throughout the country. The founder travelled for 60 years around India, collecting the most exquisite examples of doors and windows, toys and lamps and locks of every size and shape. The simple nutcracker used in the ritual of pan-eating comes in a variety of humorous forms — figures of embracing couples that kiss and part, goddesses and riders on horseback. However bizarre the idea, it affords us a rare chance to enjoy the joke with the person who made it many centuries ago.