Women in India
A.A. Powell on a new exhibition and publication from the British Library.
Most of the items discussed and illustrated in Albertine Gaur's Women in India (published by the British Library) are currently on display as part of an exhibition at the British Library. (The exhibition closes on October 18th.) Albertine Gaur has selected from the rich resources of the British Museum's Oriental Antiquities and Manuscripts Departments those manuscripts and paintings which capture visually some of the 'basic concepts of femaleness which colour the attitude of society and the expectations of the woman herself'. The first impact is essentially a visual one – Mughal and Persian miniatures combine with illustrations from Sanskrit religious texts to present facets of the life of Indian women as depicted in legend, history and religious treatises. The accompanying translations and commentary lend some structure to an otherwise very complex mixture of diverse concepts and customs. Extracts from folksongs supplement the visual images very effectively to evoke the atmosphere of rural India.
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