“The talk narrates the dense, ceaseless movement of Indian Army followers from Bombay to Mesopotamia (Iraq) and back, and the political consequences of this first mass circulation of South Asian labour into the Persian Gulf.” Dr Radhika Singha on her lecture for Sarmaya Talks on 9th February 2024, at Durbar Hall, The Asiatic Society of… Read more »
“The British held India by an army predominantly comprising Indian soldiers, and relied on their fidelity. This loyalty stood the test of time but was eventually breached during the Second World War, leading to India’s independence. True to Their Salt is a radical retelling of how India came to be colonized by a handful of… Read more »
This is a letter written by Prince Ghulam Muhammad Sultan, the fourteenth son of Tipu Sultan (1751-1799), the ruler of Mysore. The letter, dated 21st August 1868, is addressed to a British government official, Captain Peacock. After Tipu Sultan’s defeat in Seringapatam, the British deported the Sultan’s remaining family members to Calcutta. Prince Ghulam Muhammad… Read more »
By ship, by yacht, by elephant and by camel. We follow the heir to Queen Victoria on an elaborate tour of India in 1875
Fanny Parkes’s richly illustrated journals give us a sense of the freedom that the author experienced as a woman traveller in 19th-century India
‘Line of March of Bengal Regiment of Infantry in Scinde’ is illustrated by Frederic Peter Layard (1818-91), who was enlisted as an ensign in the East India Company’s armed forces. Layard shared a passion for art with many of his colleagues in the civil and military services of the East India Company. This book illustrates… Read more »
This is the 1st Ed. No. LXXII, in the Second series of the Bombay in the Days of Queen Anne. As a official of the East India Service, John Brunell arrived to the subcontinent in the latter half of the 17th century. This book has an introduction by Samuel T. Sheppard and includes Brunell’s two… Read more »
Oude is the anglicisation of Awadh—itself a derivation of Ayodhya, capital of the ancient kingdom of Kosala. Awadh was one of the 12 original provinces or subahs defined by Mughal emperor Akbar. It was governed by a subedar, under whom sprawled a network of taluqdars, members of a land-owning aristocracy responsible for collecting revenues from… Read more »
This mid 19th-century book by Fanny Parkes Parlby is an account that illustrates her independent travels in India. Fanny Parkes, born as Frances Susanna Archer in 1794, arrived in Calcutta from England in 1822 and eventually set out on solo explorations, sometimes on horseback or a boat, across India. She pieced together her account from… Read more »
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
This engraving from the book The Ruins of Mandoo: The Ancient Mahommedan Capital of Malwah in Central India, 1859 illustrates features of Mandu in western Madhya Pradesh, an ancient city of historical and architectural significance. The beautiful fortress town can be dated back to the 6th century, since when it has continually been the site… Read more »
This album documents the extensive tour of the Indian subcontinent undertaken by the Prince of Wales, Edward VII, the eldest son of Queen Victoria. Prince Edward travelled widely across India between November 1875 to May 1876. Following the revolt of 1857, the British Royals embarked on long tours to establish relations with their colonies and… Read more »
This album captures the arrival of the bubonic plague in Bombay in 1896 and 1897. It documents the circumstances of the time and the plague’s progression into becoming one of the deadliest pandemics of 19th century India. Acacio Gabriel Viegas, a Portuguese medical practitioner, recognized the plague in Bombay at Mandvi in September 1896. Regarded… Read more »
This CdV photo card album comes with a maroon cover, and a raised golden decoration on its binding. It contains 40 photographic prints inside card mounts that have gilded edges. This album contains images of Maharajas of different regions, some saints, other men and women of prominence, as well as of their servants. Some of… Read more »
On June 20, 1864, French writer and photographer Louis Rousselet boarded the Veetis, an English steamer bound for the east, from Marseilles. He arrived in Bombay in the middle of monsoon in early July, and stayed on in India for six years, travelling the country and photographing his observations. At the end of his travels,… Read more »
‘Wanderings of a Pilgrim, in Search of the Picturesque, During Four-and-Twenty Years in the East; With Revelations of Life in the Zenana’ was authored by Fanny Parkes Parlby. Published by P. Richardson in 1850, the rarebook includes several illustrations and offers a British female perspective on Indian life in the 19th century.