TWO COMPANY SCHOOL STUDIES OF A MARHATTA MERCHANT AND SOLDIER
PROPERTY FROM A LONDON PRIVATE COLLECTION
Possibly Deccan, Central India or Western Indian coast, ca. 1830 - 1840

Opaque pigments and black ink on watermarked paper (dated 1832?), each small vertical portrait depicting a white-clad man holding his identifying attributes including a small coin purse for the merchant and a tulwar sword, dagger, and dhal shield for the soldier, the composition reminiscent of Western ethnographic engravings displaying costumes and traditions from foreign lands, mounted, framed and glazed, at the back of the frame two cursive English annotations in sepia ink reading A Mahratta Merchant and A Mahratta Swordsman, 39cm x 30.5cm including the frame.

Marhatta or Maharatta/Maharatha (also known as Marhat Des which means Marhat country) was a historical region just north of modern-day Karnataka corresponding largely to the area occupied by the modern state of Maharashtra. The language spoken in this region was Marathi, granting a degree of cultural and linguistic difference to the local inhabitants. The Persian historian Firishta (1560 - 1600) mentions that in the 14th century, this region was conquered by the emperor of the Delhi Sultanate, Alauddin Khalji (r. 1296 - 1316), becoming officially a dependent protectorate of Daulatabad, the capital of the Delhi Sultanate (1327 - 1334), and later a secondary capital of the Deccami Ahmadnagar Sultanate (1499 – 1636).