Kenneth Robbins (Alexandria, Virginia)

Dr. Kenneth X. Robbins
5055 Seminary Road
Suite 108
Alexandria, Virginia  22311   USA

phone: 703-379-2600
email: RAJANAWAB@aol.com

Description of work:

Published articles Dealing With India
1. Indian and Southeast Asian Ivories: Selections from Local 
Collections-The Brooklyn Museum. Orientations March 1983
2. Indo-Asian Shadow Figures. Arts of  Asia Sept.-Oct. 1983
3. The Art of India And Pakistan. Arts of Asia May-June 1985
4. The Sculpture of India 3000 B. C.-1300 A. D. Arts of  Asia Sept.-Oct. 1985
5.  Indian Miniatures from the Ehrenfeld Collection. Arts of  Asia  
May-June 1986
6.  The Indian And Nepalese Collections of The Wellcome Institute for the 
History of Medicine. Bulletin of The Indian Institute of the  History of 
Medicine  July, 1987
7.  India: A Festival of Science. Highlights: Notes, News And Views on The 
Arts, History And Letters of India  Summer 1987 (Co-Author Joyce Robbins)
8.  Siddha Medicine.  Highlights  Summer 1987
9. Use of Numismatic and Philatelic Source Material in the study of the 
Princely States of India. Indo-British Review 15#2: 143, 1988.
10. Maharajas, Nawabs & Other Princes Beyond Number from the Robbins 
Collection of the Indian Princely States. Ind Dak (Serialized 1990-1)
11. The Jewish Community of Calcutta.  
A. In  R. Krishna (Editor) From  Thames to Hooghly: Calcutta Heritage 
1690-1990.  Washington: India School, 1990. Pp. 32-40
B. Points East  8 #1:6-9, 1993
12. The Calcutta  Collection of the Wellcome Institute for the History of   
Medicine. (Co-author Joyce Robbins)
A.  In R. Krishna,  1990,  Pp. 41-50
B. Bull. Indian Institute of the History of Medicine  20:107-21, 1990
13. Kalighat Painting, in R. Krishna, 1990, Pp. 61-74.
14. Maharajas, Nawabs and other Princes beyond number from the Robbins 
Collection of the Indian States: Exhibition Guide. Washington: Gandhi 
Memorial Center, 1991.
15. Barriers to the Appreciation of  Indian Art. Highlights  6:5, 1991
16. Medals of the Indian Princely States. The India Magazine  April 1992    
17. Jams & Nizams; Nawabs & Sawbwas; Mirs, Raos, & Maharajas. The India Magazine  September 1993
18. De La Rue And Palitana. The Revenue Journal of Great Britain  4#4:81, 1994
19. Jams And Nizams; Amirs, Raos, And Maharajas: The Robbins Collection of 
the Indian Princely States. Guide for exhibition at the Paley Library, 
Temple University. August 29th-October 14th, 1994 
20. Confusingly Similar Names in the Princely States. India Post 29:99, 1995
21. Strong Medicine. The India Magazine  October 1995
22. The Sacred Cows of  Bundi.  India Post  30:87, 1996
23. Kalsia State-A new revenue discovery. India Post  32:82, 1998
24. Merchants and Traders. Traveler's India 2#3:17, 1998
25. Kalighat Paintings Documented Bengali Life. Traveler's India  3#1:17, 1999
26. Capturing Picturesque India: European and Indian Artists in British 
India. Traveler's India   3#3: 4, 1999
27. The Strange Life of  William Fraser. Traveler's India 3#3:20, 1999
28. Maharaja Venkat Ramana of  Rewa. The Revenue Journal Of   Great 
Britain  X:79, 1999
29. Bahawalpur. India Post  33:131, 1999
30. The Honor of   the Maharanas and Mewar's Relationship with Central 
Powers. Durbar: Journal of  the Indian Military History Society 16:153, 
1999
31. Jews of  Calcutta. Kol India  IX#2: 6, 2000.
32. Medals of  the Indian Princely States. Traveler's India 4 #1:24, 2000
33. Painting group explores Rajasthani sites. Traveler's India   4#2, 2000
34 . India: Land without Anti-Semitism. Washington Jewish Week Nov. 9, 2000
35.  Meeting the Maharani of  Kota. Traveler's India  4#3, 2000 
36. The Camp of Polish refugee Children at Balachadi, Nawanagar. Journal 
of   Indo-Judaic Studies 4:95, 2001
37. The Renaissance of  Jewish Life in India Traveler's India  6#1:24, 
2002 
38. The Fastidious Fiscal Philatelist and the Indian Princely States The 
Revenue Journal Of   Great Britain  XII: 103, 2002
39. The God Given Kingdom of  Bahawalpur The Pakistan Study Circle 
Newsletter  4: 3, 2003
40. Jhalawar or how the Fiscal Philatelist became a Cinderella & met Real 
Princesses India Post 35: 3, 2003
41. Medals of the Indian Princely States in Naval Krishna & Manu Krishna  
The Ananda-Vana of Indian Art [Dr. Ananda Krishna Felicitation Volume]  2004 
pp. 455-70.
42. Junagadh  State and the Attachment Scheme India Post 163: 144, 2005
43. Stamps as Money-The Saurashtra Record India Post 164: 29, 2006
44. African Elites in India Arts of Asia September-October 2006
45. The Nawab of Junagadh's property in Mecca India Post [in press]
46. A Seventeenth century Deccani Talking Tree? and other composite images 
in the ?Parallel Universes? of a Collector and Visvamitra. This article 
will  be published in the felicitation volume for Professor Ohri. 
47. Historical time line of the Jews of Kerala. American Sephardi Report 
[In press]


 
African Elites in India: Habshi Amarat
Book co-edited with John McLeod
Published by Mapin 2006
Chapters co-written by Kenneth Robbins :  
African Elites in India  
Africans in the Medieval Deccan
Africans in  Medieval North India, Bengal, and Gujarat
Africans in Mughal India and the Princely States
 Identifying Africans in India


American Council for Southern Asian Art 
Three sets of 100 slides with commentary [1998] 
Available through the University of Michigan Department of Art History; 
Attention: Wendy Holden; 150 B Tappen Hall; Ann Arbor, Michigan 
48109-1357. Sets 150, 151, & 152:
150. The Robbins Collection of the Indian Princely States: Paintings, 
Drawings, Photographs, and Objects
151. The Robbins Collection of the Indian Princely States: Postal and 
Fiscal Philatelic Items
152. The Robbins Collection of the Indian Princely States: Coins, Medals, 
Numismatic Items, Military & Court Paraphernalia, Paper Ephemera, and Maps 

Book Reviews
1.Robert Johnson: Femininity Lost And Regained Council  on  Women in Asian 
Studies  Newsletter   8 #1, Fall 1990
2 Sudhir Kakar: Intimate Relations: Exploring Indian Sexuality
A. Middle East & South Asia Folklore Newsletter  8 #3, Autumn 1991 
B. Paso (Psychoanalytic Social Science) Rev. 1#10 April, 1992
3. S. Nanda: Neither Man Nor Woman: The Hijras of   India Middle East and 
South Asia Folklore Newsletter 8#3, Autumn1991
 
 
The Robbins Collection
1. Indian miniature paintings with examples from many Pahari, Rajput, and 
Deccani schools as well as Nepalese, Company, and folk paintings
2. Indian fine and decorative arts
3. Photographs and photographic albums, maps, government reports & books 
from & about the princely states
4. Commemorative medals, military decorations & flags of the Indian Princely States 
5. Fiscal documents, fiscal stamps, hundis, stock certificates, coins, 
cash  coupons, picture postcards, postal history, and postage stamps of   
the Indian States
6. Shadow figures from India and Southeast Asia
7. Princely States as well as ancient, medieval and Sultanate period Indian coins
8. Books  and artifacts of the Indian Jews;

Exhibitions from the Collection 
Curated by Kenneth Robbins
1. Cardinal Spellman Museum [October 3-December 31, 1989]
2. Gandhi Memorial Center in association with the Embassy of India  [April 13 -June 30, 1991]
3. Washington convention of the Association for Asian Studies [March 1992]
4. Napex, Washington  [June 1994]
5. Temple University  Library [August 29-October 14 1994]
6. Meridian House International, Washington D.C. [October 25-December 30, 1994]
7. National Library of Medicine [September 1995- January 1996]
8. Columbia University [April-May 1996]
9. Chatham College [March 2000]
10. American Sephardi Federation [2006] 
11. Special tours of the collection have been made by the Asia Society of   
Washington, the Columbia University Club of Washington, the Johns Hopkins 
School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University School 
of Advanced International Studies, the India Club of the World Bank, the 
Smithsonian Institution?s Freer & Sackler Gallery docents, the Smithsonian 
Resident Associates Program and U.S. Department of State Foreign Service 
Institute.
 
 
Current research subjects for publication or exhibiiton  
-The Indian Princes
-Medicine in the Indian Princely States
-Opium and the Princely States
-Stamp money and cash coupons of the Indian Princely States
-Picture Postcards of the Indian Princely States
-Amb State 
-The Amirs of Bahawalpur and their ?God-Given Kingdom?
-Jaipur and its Thikanas
-Maharaja Ganga Singh of BIianer
-Late paintings for Mewar and Nathdwara
-Korea, a Chhattisgarh state
-Begum Somru
-Sambhar Shamlat, joint property of Jaipur & Jodhpur, & the British salt monopoly
-Popular images of the Indian Freedom Struggle
-Oedipal Themes In Hindu Art, Mythology And Society
-Elephants, the Elephant God, and Maharajas
-The Jews of India
-Karbhari Jacob Bapuji of Aundh
-Maurice Frydmann in India
-Correspondence of   the Ahmadi missionary Mufti Muhammed Sadiq with a society of 'freethinkers'


Presentations Dealing With India
1. Orientalism 
2. British India: The Psychology of The Raj
3. The Indian Princely States/The Robbins Collection of the Indian Princely States
4. Maharajas, Nawabs And Other Princes
5. Numismatic & Philatelic Studies of the Princely States
6. Barriers to the Appreciation of Indian Art
7. A Deccani painting of a talking tree
8. Mysticism
9. The Rajas of Cochin and the Jews
10. The Jews of India
11. African Muslim elites in India   
12. Medical Pluralism in the Indian Princely States
13. Medicine, Women, and Maharajas
14.  Self-Immolating Widows and Degenerate Maharajas: Reality And Myth
15. Women from South Asia in the Arts
16. Psychiatric Aspects of the Bhopal Tragedy
17. Oedipal Themes in Hindu Mythology, Art and Society
18.Trance  and Possession States

 
Presentation Sites/Audiences
Agra Mental Hospital, India
Alexandria  Hospital
Amba Vilas Palace, Mysore
American Sephardi Federation
American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians
Asia Society of Washington
Association for Asian Studies
Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum
Center for Public Policy, B'Nai Brith International
Chatham College 
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Columbia University Club of Washington
Columbia University 
Freer Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Gandhi Memorial Center, Washington
George Washington University
Indian Embassy, Washington  
Kalikotta Palace of the Cochin Royal Family, Tripunithera, India
Kota Open University, India
Library of Congress
Montgomery College
National Library of Medicine, NIH
National Postal Museum-Smithsonian Institution
Rajput Association of North America/International Rajput Conference
Rambagh Palace Hotel, Jaipur
Smithsonian Resident Associates Program
The African Diaspora in Asia [TADIA] conference, Goa
U.S. Dapartment of State-Foreign Service Institute
Walter Reed Army Medical Center
Washington School For Psychiatry
World Bank-India Club

Associations With India
1. Sackler Gallery [Smithsonian Institution]: Visiting Committee 1994-9  
and Alumni Circle
2. Contributing Editor, Highlights: Notes, News and Views on Arts, History 
and Letters  of India [This journal is no longer active]
3. Board of Directors, Asian Division Friends Society of the Library of 
Congress