Posted on: 20 November 2012

This drawing appears to show the Vasantotsava festival. The costume of the second male figure from the left is an exact replica of the attire worn at the Maratha court at Thanjavur.

Opaque watercolour painting on paper of four couples celebrating the arrival of the spring season in a courtyard bordered by two buildings. Canopies have been hung in front of the buildings. The participants, armed with long golden syringes, squirt yellow coloured water on to each other. One of the ladies draws coloured water into her syringe from a large golden vat placed at the centre of the courtyard. The men and women are all elegantly dressed: the women wear saris and blouses, or trousers and flowing diaphanous jamas, and the men wear loose trousers and long jamas, some have brocade overcoats, and interestingly all wear shoes, whereas the women are barefoot.

Painted in Tiruchirapalli
ca.1820-1830

© Trustees of the British Museum


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Costumes and style of painting was not south Indian.