Special Exhibition to Honour the 1400th Anniversary Celebrations of the Hijra Era

In honour of the 1400th anniversary celebrations of the Hirra Era, an exhibition of masterpieces of creative art and literature such as manuscripts, paintings, coins, decorative arts, textiles, jewellery, arms, etc., has been organized by the National Museum, New Delhi. The objects for the exhibition have been collected from all over the country through the good offices of Shri M. Hidayatullah, Vice-President of India and Chairman of the Hijra Celebration Committee, Shri Mir Nasrullah, Additional Secretary, Department of Culture and Member Secretary, Hijra Celebration Committee and Dr. (Mrs.) Kapila Vatsyayan, Joint Educational Adviser, Department of Culture.

Special thanks are due to Shri Karl Khandalavala, who could find time to act as expert adviser on the exhibition and provide a comprehensive introduction for this Handlist and collaborated in the compilation of the entries of the Handlist.

Thanks are also due to the Director General, Archaeological Survey of India, the Director, Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, the Director, Salarjung Museum, Hyderabad, the Director, Indian Museum, Calcutta, the Director, Khuda Bakhsh Oriental Public Library, Patna, the Director, Arabic and Persian Research Institute, Tonk, the Additional Director, Raza Library, Rampur, Officer on special duty, Bharat Kala Bhavan, Varanasi, Principal Trustee Jagdish and Kamala Mittal Museum of Fine Arts, Hyderabad, Shri Brijraj Singh, Maharaj Kumar of Kota and Shri C. L. Bharany, New Delhi, who have so graciously made their priceless objects available for the exhibition and supplied essential details of the objects for this publication.

For the objects of the National Museum the catalogue data for the manuscripts has been provided by Dr. Narinder Nath, Keeper (Manuscripts), for coins by Miss R. Vanaja, Keeper (Numismatics and Epigraphy), for paintings by Shri O.P. Sharma, Deputy Keeper (Paintings), for decorative arts and textiles by Mrs. K. Lal, Deputy Keeper (Decorative arts), for jewellery by Mrs. S. Puri, Curatorial Associate (Arms).

Thanks are also due to Dr. C. B. Pandey, Keeper (Publications) and his team of workers who took every care to bring out the Handlist in time.