Cotton Cart
"Thousands of these carts, all over Bombay. 14/4/06"
"Thousands of these carts, all over Bombay. 14/4/06"
A beautiful studio portrait featuring the "thammattama," drums used in Buddhist rituals in Sri Lanka. They may be derived from a frame drum used in Tamil Nadu, and their sound is said to have irritated British colonists.
An unusual portrait of a dancing girl, simply dressed, with her hands above her head, against a flattened studio backdrop, probably in Mumbai.
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.
An exquisite Dhurandhar portrait, this of a widow framed in front of a tree and a temple in the background. Orthodox widows were normally not permitted to remarry and had to obey strict dress codes like not wearing a blouse under her sari.
[Original caption] Arms Sellers, Hyderabad. Hyderabad, the capital of the state of the same name, is celebrated for its swords and other arms.
The role of nautch or "dancing" girl was changing at the time of this postcard. S.S.
One of those fascinating advertising postcards that sheds light in the little remembered tonics and remedies that coursed the world in the 19th and 20th centuries – and still do. True's Elixir was developed by Dr.
A slightly unusual portrait of two nautch girls in what seems like a room but is likely a studio given the painted column on the left. The bed is a prop, and the woman seated on the floor is apparently holding a mirror to the woman seated on the bed.
Lascars were sailors, mostly from the subcontinent, serving on European ships that sailed the world and who spoke their own multinational tongue, "Lascari." Throughout the 16th through 19th centuries many landed in Britain and America, with a few