Curatorial Practice : Research and Storytelling: CULINARY CHRONICLES: MUGHAL FOOD PRACTICES IN THE PERFORMANCE OF KINGSHIP

This display was a part of the curatorial workshop where we, first-year masters students were asked to bring to vision the dissertations and the research process of the final year master's students as teams of two. We spent a week understanding the dissertations by making mindmaps, going through the stories and experiences, and trying to articulate them in a visual.

This particular display was based on the vision of Kratika Khatri’s dissertation “Culinary Chronicles: Mughal Food Practices in the Performance of Kingship”. The process started with making simple flow charts and mapping the keywords that would eventually link the entire dissertation. After the basic ideas and concepts were laid out in just a few words, we made multiple mind maps to understand the project flow, elaborated on the methodologies, and did chapter-wise breakdowns. The mind maps essentially showed the viewers how Mughal emperors, with Timurid and Mongol lineages and relation to Central Asian courts, brought to Hindustan their own food practices. Over time, a synthesis emerged that mixed both Mughal and regional cuisine and practices. This can also be traced from the import and export of foodstuffs recorded in the biographical texts of these emperors. The research carried out by Kratika was then visualized as a display that would allow the audience, even non-specialized audience to understand the concepts explored in the dissertation. The two main aspects discussed were - pleasure and performance. The display was conceived as an experience that would allow the audience to glimpse into the peripatetic court of Babur and the indulgences of Jahangir.

We turned the maps into miniature tents referring to Baburnama paintings, a bed from a portrait of Prince Murad and his consort in an intimate setting. We wished to give the viewer an experience of the luxurious and extravagant life the Mughal rulers lived and how these conventions became standards for later provincial Mughal courts to be recognized as elite. Our main focus here in accordance with the dissertation was the food practices so we made food a part of our display, by bringing out to life the imagery we could see in these Mughal miniature paintings. Starting with some cold Ruhafza sherbet one could sit on the kaleen on the ground and see paintings such as ’The Dying Inayat Khan’ along with pomegranates and other fruits. One could leave at the end with the flavor of Paan in their breath and the sound of Persian music in the air.