Read Book Online : http://www.archive.org/stream/observationsonm02aligoog#page/n3/mode/2up

Download pdf Book : http://books.google.com/books?id=q1QIAAAAQAAJ&oe=UTF-8

It is an amazing reading!!!

I looked for references to burqa, but did not find any. There are plenty of intimate details of ladies' wear including the lehengam ungeeah (bodice) and the dupatta (spelled deputtah in the book). The book contains also details of cosmetics and trinkets. It appears then that Burqa is a much later development. For the first time I read a description of the dupattas made of Dacca silk - like the "Gossamer spider's web". Aren't the Dacca weavers said to have been decimated by the British?

Mrs. Mir Hassan Ali did not marry in India, but in Lucknow! Intermarriage is often said to have declined after the East India Company excluded Eurasians from the European population in the 1780s and 1790s but continued in some parts of the subcontient of which Avadh was definitely one. European and Eurasian ancestry is fairly common, long ago children once choosing their faith at adulthood.

Am not surprised about the burqa business actually. A very self-styled and advanced locality, often sophisticated and an incredible art scene for its last three centuries. Wow. Burqas don't really fit with the goings on though I'm certain taht some ladies wore them, at some point.

Burqas were not really worn so much in those days !Ladies went out in closed conveyances and spent most of their time with other women in the zenana.They did not veil themselves from male members of their own families / close relatives.