From the Koh-i-noor to the Hitopadesha: Consumption of Indian Antiquities in the Colonial Market

Abstract

The paper examines both tangible and intangible materials that had a ritualistic value for Indians and once taken into the colonial market became objects of antiquity. The famous Koh-i-noor diamond was one such object which was a symbol of imperial sovereignty but once brought into the global market became a thing of antiquity. The meaning of certain objects change when moved from one place to another.  It is this cross-cultural global contact that gives things their new meanings, and in this context the essay also looks at the Hitopadesha, a text on morals and ethics, ‘the most popular story-book of India’ as Max Muller called it. It is in the process of getting transferred/translated/transformed that such antiquities acquired a new meaning. The essay brings out the complex and ambiguous imperial dynamics of appropriating, recreating and canonization of such tangible and intangible antiquities from India.