Fatehsingh Museum to display Ranjitsinhs headgears

VADODARA: The exquisite collection of headgears owned by the royal Gaekwad family will now be up for public display from Friday.
A special gallery dedicated to headgears will be inaugurated at Maharaja Fatehsingh Museum near Motibaug Ground in the city on Friday. The royal family decided to display the headgear collection to observe 77th birth anniversary of late Maharaja Ranjitsinh Gaekwad.Ranjitsinh had collected a variety of headgears during his lifetime and had also taken up doctoral thesis on the subject.
"The headgear gallery will be inaugurated on Friday evening at Maharaja Fatehsingh Museum. Over 150 headgears from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan will be put on display at the gallery. It is a unique collection of headgears that depict different cultures of our country," said Manda Hingurao, secretary, Maharaja Fatehsingh Museum Trust. Ranjitsinh's daughter Alaukikaraje of Jasdan will inaugurate the gallery.
Ranjitsinh, who was also a classical singer, had fascination for headgears and began collecting them decades ago. "In 1986, he had got his headgear collection documented and later went on collect many more worn not just by royal families but also by different communities, including tribals. Many of the headgears have interesting stories behind them," Hingurao told TOI. Ranjitsinh had begun doctoral thesis on headgears but couldn't complete it.
To commemorate the birth anniversary of Ranjitsinh, a city-based art collector too has got a silver coin minted. Chandrashekhar Patil has got a 10 gram silver coin with the image of Ranjitsinh minted and it will be released on Friday by Shubhanginiraje Gaekwad. "I have also made several drawings in memory of Maharaja Ranjitsinh that will be exhibited at Akruti Art Gallery near Kirti Mandir from Friday," Patil said.