rajah

It could be a wedding feast, perhaps, thrown by a rajah to celebrate the marriage of one of his sons — some occasion for which no expense would be spared.

There, the rajah, whose three brothers are about to be executed by British forces, informs them that they will be killed in retaliation.

We don’t ever really see this, but what the curators do show are energetic, engaged women with as many interests as their rajahs and maharajahs.

Illustrations of the Ramayana and other holy texts, portraits of rajahs with horses and elephants, and love scenes both spiritual and erotic plot the development of Indian aristocratic taste over three tumultuous centuries.

He’s often called the “sultan of sequins, the rajah of rhinestones” and has won numerous Emmy Awards for his designs and been nominated for Academy Awards.