Radha-Vilas
[Original caption] A love scene between Radha and her consort Lord Krishna. [end]
Lord Krishna spent his earlier life in Vrindavan where the Gopis or cow-herd girls offered him company. Radha was considered the chief gopi.
Mumbai Bombay
Rabindranath Tagore
A portrait of Tagore published three years after his death. In Krishna Dutta and Andrew Robinson's excellent biography of this great man (Bloomsbury, 1995), there appears this translation of this poignant poem:
Karma (The Worker), 1896
No sign of my
Progress of Fashion
A clever postcard by master artist M.V. Dhurandhar showing the modernization of fashion among women in his hometown of Bombay. This card was published by D.B.
Parsi Ladies
One of the most popular early postcards of Parsees was this arresting composite portrait by Clifton & Co. The original albumen likely dates to the late 1890s.
Sepoy Chatta Singh V.C., of the 9th Bhopal Infantry
[Original caption] A RAJPUT V.C. "For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty in leaving cover to assist in his Commanding Officer who was lying wounded and helpless in the open.
Fisher Woman
An early postcard and theme of Bombay artists, the fisher woman, with a basket of fish on her head. A fishing vessel is in the background, its mast at an angle which adds energy to her pose.
Sir J. N. Tata
The "father of Indian industry." Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata (1839-1904) was born in Gujarat and graduated from Elphinstone College in Mumbai in 1858. He founded and sold a successful trading firm, and then built a successful cotton mill that since
Hindu Beauty
A lithographic card, most likely done by an Indian artist and printed in Britain. Note how nicely the woman is foregrounded from a low angle, with a smaller temple in the background and a swirl of green that helps give life to the portrait.
A Native Boat, Bombay
A nicely composed postcard showing the progression in the size of ocean-going vessels, from the small boat in the foreground, to the larger ship on right, and even larger ship in the distance on the left.
