Ceremony with figures in costume personifying Hindu deities, Calcutta, West Bengal. Coloured etching by François Balthazar Solvyns, 1799.

[Calcutta] : [François Balthazar Solvyns], [1799]

1 print : etching, with watercolour.

A joolun, jatra ; the celebration of the swinging of Kistna - in the foreground appears Kistna, Bularan, & Subul - occasionally some of them disappear & change their dress to personify Radica, Laletah, Bisakah, & Chundiahbullil - on the left sits Jujudah, (Kistna's mother) holding a lamp of 5 lights, with which is performed a charm to keep Kistna from evil spirits, &c Latter part of lettering is in ink manuscript Bears number : section 12th ; no. 5

François Balthazar Solvyns, a Belgian artist, spent many years in Calcutta, producing drawings of the local people and their customs, showing different castes and street sellers. Solvyns employed local Indian artists to apply watercolour to his series "Manners, customs, and dresses of the Hindoos"

Travel in aquatint and lithography 1770-1860 from the library of J.R. Abbey, San Francisco 1991, vol. 2, 421.233

Wellcome Collection 31421i