Double page painting on paper depicting a Hindu wedding. A magnificent wedding procession progresses on a road skirted by low buildings and trees. The small niches for the lamps on the houses’ walls and flanking their entrances, the verandahs and the steps leading to them have been rendered with great precision. In the foreground the procession headed by a flag bearer on foot. He is followed by an elephant carrying the mahout and a man bearing a banner with the image of a ploughshare. A second elephant carries two men seated in a howdah. Between the two elephants, is a chariot drawn probably by a bullock, with pipers and drummers sitting on it. Walking alongside the chariot are men armed with long spears. At a short distance the groom on horse follows, led by an attendant, flanked by a bearer carrying an insignia and two further attendants. Around the bridegroom are two sepoys, two mace-bearers, groups of elegantly clad men, possibly guests or relatives, and two men balancing on their heads elaborate floral arrangements. Behind the groom and his retinue the bride and her father sit in a palanquin carried by four men. Male attendants with insignias and umbrellas, men armed with spears, female attendants walk alongside the palanquin, followed by a posse of musicians, bearers of floral arrangements, and by a covered chariot drawn by bullocks. Musicians, a drummer seated on a bullock, and yet another riding on a camel, dancing girls, guests and passers by throng the foreground.

Company School
Date1820
Painted in: Andhra Pradesh

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