As the writers approach Baroda from different vantage points, they render its story in unique ways: as first-person accounts, and as art critics, anthropologists and historians. Early artists, craftsmen and photographers engage with Sayajirao Gaekwad III; the royal patron in turn represents these practitioners at international exhibitions; itinerant builders and established European architects contribute to a fast-modernizing princely state; artists, art teachers and administrators set new directions for a Faculty of Fine Arts (FFA) in post-Independence Baroda/India; patrons, gallerists, scholars and artists shape contemporary Baroda's artistic culture.