What does the caption really mean? Gollo March?

I've been trying to decode it too! The Curator's comments beneath the painting go on to say: This painting is part of a set of ninety-two drawings depicting various Indian castes and occupations. An explanatory caption in English, written in a flowing early nineteenth-century hand, accompanies the majority of the drawings. Their repertoire covers a vast range of castes from the Telugu Brahmins to the Boyis and occupations from the astrologer to the jailer, interspersed with a colourful array of religious mendicants, acrobats and musicians. So - possibly a caste, the name Anglicized or 'mispronounced' in English?

Is it 'money' or the 'swami'? I think it is 'swami'.

The sentence must make some sense. It is written by a learned hand.

Shekhar - it is a literate hand, not necessarily a learned one. And whoever's hand it is, his English grammar is highly questionable!

I doubt if one with that kind of "hand" would make a "nonsensical" sentence. But I take the difference between learned and literate; it is the same as between cultured and educated?

I agree with you that the sentence must have SOME meaning. I only wish it were possible to understand it. :)

The beautiful Tengalai nAma(trident-shaped community mark on the forehead) makes one imagine that a Tamil follower of Ramanuja Vaishnavism is portrayed. But the presence of a Turban on the man's head also gives the idea that it could be Sathani[Telugu] couple that is portrayed.

it is strange that the man is portrayed fair and the woman dark- reversal of shyam sundar