Gangavataran
[Original caption] Shankar receives the river Ganga on his head in compliance with the prayers of Bhageeratha. [end]
This image is from a famous painting by Raja Ravi Varma (1848-1906), one of India's most important painters.
Halftone
Watson's Hotel, Bombay.
Lynne Withey writes in Grand Tours and Cooks Tours (London, 1998), about the growth of the Western tourist trade in the 1890s, that "apart from a few first-class establishments in major cities, most hotels were barely acceptable by Western standards.
Darjeeling. Kangchenjunga. No. 1
"Darjeeling is a hillstation and Sanatorium, situated on the lower slopes of the Himalayas.
The "Gharry" Our Local Chariot in Which We Often Tour the Town
A 1945 calendar postcard by the Anglo-Indian animator and cartoonist Merton Lacey featuring Allied troops in India fighting the Japanese in Indo-China during World War II.
Converted and unconverted Pariah
The word "Pariah" owes its origin to the Pariah caste of the Hindu society of India.
Bangalore. The Jumma Masjid Old Poor House Road.
[Original caption] The Jummas Masjid, Old Poor House Road. Jumma Masjid means "Friday Mosque" they say, and so it is not surprising that more than one Indian temple bears the name.
Rope Bridges, Jhelum River, (Kashmir)
One of Fred Bremner's favorite images, also found in his autobiography. Wandering through Kashmir he wrote ". . . the eye may sometimes rest on a figure slowly gliding through mid-air with no apparent support whatever.
Dhobi (Washerman)
A postmarked version in India from August 16, 1905 of Dhobi Washerman and sent to Mr. u [sp?], 16 Mt. Ararat Rd., Richmond, Surrey [England]." The writing is hard to make out exactly, but it seems to say: "This is Mr. Dierius' Your card Dhobi.
Dhobi (Washerman)
Another evocative card by M.V. Dhurandhar injects personality into the roving washerman. In the background is an edifice of the "new" Bombay while in the foreground we see the age-old profession of washermen cleaning the resident's laundry.
See the
Shoe-lace Hawker
An early Dhurandhar postcard showing, as he was wont to do, the new types springing up in the city of Bombay as office workers and other people wearing Western shoes needed to replace their laces.
