This is the fort of Anandgarh, the seat of Sikh political power in the time of Guru Gobind Singh.
It was the first Sikh state to claim sovereignty, and you can see it in the place: the forts and the wardrums, elephants draped in crimson and gold, warriors in royal blue, traders in shawls from Kashmir and jewels from Kabul.
Painting Anandpur's most formidable fort didn't feel like going backwards in time. I wasn't painting a city we had lost, but the one that still belongs to us, the Sikh capital that gave rise to the Khalsa.
ਭਲ ਭਾਗ ਭਯਾ, ਤੁਮ ਤਾਹਿ ਕਹੋ,
ਗੜ੍ਹ ਆਨੰਦ ਫੇਰਿ ਬਸਾਵਹਿਗੇ ॥Fortunate are we, we make this promise, we shall re-establish Anandgarh.
This fort did not fall because its walls were weak. It fell from our memory. We have lost our own history: the fearlessness of our shahids, the patshahi we had, the land that was completely under our control.
So I painted it back. This is Anandgarh, in the year 1700. This is what we promised the Guru, and this we shall rebuild.
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