Darbar Collections

The collection has the oral history interview of Chatrajeet Singh, a Darbar community member. His interview explores traditional views on wildlife, landscape governance, and the historical transitions in land control and conservation authority from princely estates to state departments. It also presents the second part of the archival records of the Chotila princely family, offering a rare window into the socio-political, economic, and environmental landscape of pre- and post-independence Saurashtra. The Vidi registers, maintained by Chhatrajeet Singh since the 1970s, provide detailed records of grassland and forest estate management, documenting staff appointments, monitoring of illegal activities, expenditures, and leases granted to Maldharis for grazing. These registers offer crucial insights into historical grassland management and the economic and ecological practices of the period. Complementing these are correspondences between princely family members and colonial officials, including disputes over land, revenue records, and the purchase of topographical maps, which reveal administrative negotiations, bureaucratic procedures, and engagement with colonial knowledge systems. The 12-bore I. Horliss shotgun, approximately 120 years old and used until 1945, provides complementary evidence of elite leisure, hunting practices, and the social and technological dimensions of firearms in princely and post-colonial India. It demonstrates how hunting mediated authority, regulated land use, and reflected interactions with wildlife, highlighting the role of material culture in shaping historical understandings of governance, status, and ecological knowledge.