Krishen Khanna, seated in a wheelchair in a black bandhgala, looks at the camera holding a rose-gold card in both hands; above him hang a framed red painting of a bandsman and wall text headed “The Bandwallas”
Krishen Khanna with the 1838 Reserve card, beneath his Bandwalla. New Delhi, October 2026

News ·

Bandwalla and the 1838 Reserve card

Card
1838 Reserve
Launched by
The Times of India, with ICICI Bank and Visa
Painting
Bandwalla, oil on canvas
Launch
New Delhi,

The artwork on the 1838 Reserve card is drawn from Krishen Khanna’s Bandwallas series: its source is Bandwalla, an existing painting of his that the Times group chose. The Times of India launched the card with ICICI Bank and Visa; its name recalls 1838, the year the newspaper was founded.

The launch evening in New Delhi included an exhibition of works from the Bandwallas series. Krishen Khanna, at 101, attended and met the guests.

The Bandwalla has been Krishen Khanna’s subject for some fifty years, and has become the most beloved figure in his work.

Krishen Khanna’s Bandwalla: a bandsman in profile under a large red peaked cap, his dark hair and brown face in heavy impasto, a gold horn at his lips, on a ground of red and saffron
Bandwalla, oil on canvas: the painting on the 1838 Reserve card

There was dignity, but also loneliness, and over time, they became something larger for me - about performance, about invisibility, about life itself. I suppose I kept returning to them because I never exhausted what they could say.

Krishen Khanna in conversation with Karan Khanna · The Real Progressive, 2026
Krishen Khanna, laughing, holds up a rose-gold card; behind him on a maroon wall are the corner of a framed red painting, a brass label and wall text
Krishen Khanna with the 1838 Reserve card
Krishen Khanna, white-haired, in a black bandhgala, smiles as he holds the 1838 Reserve card in his open hands
Krishen Khanna with the card at the launch
The artist, smiling in a wheelchair, sits beside a sculpture of a bandsman blowing a trumpet on a red plinth, against a lit garden
Krishen Khanna beside a sculpture of a bandsman
Krishen Khanna, laughing in his wheelchair, holds a pale green box on his lap while a man in a navy waistcoat stands beside him, smiling, beneath the red Bandwalla
Krishen Khanna with the card’s box, the day before the launch
A bearded guest in black leans over Krishen Khanna’s wheelchair as they hold the rose-gold card together, beside the wall text “The Bandwallas”
Krishen Khanna and a guest with the card at the launch
Krishen Khanna in his wheelchair, hands clasped, between two smiling men, before a framed painting of figures in blue
Krishen Khanna with guests at the launch
Krishen Khanna’s hand, with a gold ring, holds a rose-gold card printed with “1838”, a chip, his name and a red painted cap
The card in Krishen Khanna’s hand
The 1838 Reserve card: a rose-gold card printed with “1838” and a chip; its right half is the painted head of a bandsman in profile, in a red cap, with a brass trumpet
The 1838 Reserve card, its artwork drawn from his Bandwalla Image: 1838 Reserve
Krishen Khanna, in a black bandhgala, sits in his wheelchair in profile, watching, with standing guests behind him
Krishen Khanna among the guests at the launch
Seen from behind, Krishen Khanna raises both hands in his wheelchair before a curved screen projecting the 1838 Reserve card, its painted bandsman in a red cap
Krishen Khanna before the card, projected at the launch