The British Museum has announced plans to hold a five month programme dedicated to Indian culture in 2009.

The programme, called Indian Summer, is sponsored by HSBC bank and will include a range of themed exhibitions, installations, performances, lectures and film screenings. One of the exhibits, called Garden and Cosmos: The Royal Paintings of Jodhpur, will run from 28 May to 23 August and will focus on paintings created in the 18th and first half of the 19th century. It will also debut 55 works from the Mehrangarh Museum Trust in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, never before seen in Europe.

The British Museum will also be collaborating with the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew to create an Indian-themed landscape on the museum's west lawn. There will also be a varied programme or events and activities, featuring public debates, lectures and talks by Indian academics and artists.

British Museum director, Neil MacGregor, said: “There is an enduring fascination with the rich diversity of the art and culture of India. Garden and Cosmos epitomises this diversity through the polarities expressed in the paintings, focusing on both the external courtly life of pleasure on the one hand and an internal life of devotion and speculation on the other. I am most grateful to HSBC for enabling us to present Indian Summer” The season will begin in May and close in October 2009.