Parsi Priest
A studio portrait of a Parsi priest, holding an umbrella.
A studio portrait of a Parsi priest, holding an umbrella.
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.
From Dhurandhar's earliest postcard series featuring the people of Bombay. Once again, a gesture defines character, with the white space next to the priest space for the sender to write a message.
A beautiful lithograph postcard featuring one of the most popular early postcard subject, the Parsee Tower of Silence on Malabar Hill in Bombay, where bodies are placed to be eaten by vultures waiting on the rim of the structure.
Parsi women were a popular subject—progressive women with traditional virtues, counterpoints to the nautch girl. This Parsi Lady is holding what could be a postcard.
The relationship of Parsis and athletics was a oft-discussed issue in the late 19th and early 20th century, with a tradition from Persia of Parsi marital arts and various muscle men who distinguished themselves set against popular conceptions of the
Dinshaw Billimoria (1904-1942) was one of India's most famous silent film actors, and became best known for his success in R. S. Choudhury's Anarkali (1928). He made the transition to sound films successfully in the early 1930s, but died at the age
Parsis in India originally came from Iran (Persia), and Parsi ladies were among the first Indian women to have had an active public life, no doubt helped by a high literacy rate in the community (there is a postcard or letter in the woman's hand).
By the turn of the century, newspapers had become an entrenched objects mediating social relationships among the upper and middle classes and their providers in Bombay.
This card could be from a very nicely done series by Taraporevala, although at