Royal patronage, power and aesthetics in princely India / by Angma Dey Jhala.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jhala, Angma Dey, 1978-

Contributor:

Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

Series:

Empires in perspective ; no. 15.

Empires in perspective ; no. 15

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Royal houses--India--History--20th century.

Royal houses.

Royal houses--India--History--19th century.

Princesses--India--Social life and customs--20th century.

Princesses.

Princesses--India--Social life and customs--19th century.

Women.

Manners and customs.

Courts and courtiers.

History.

India--Court and courtiers--History--20th century.

India.

India--Court and courtiers--History--19th century.

Women--India--Social life and customs.

India--In motion pictures.

Physical Description:

xi, 231 pages ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; Brookfield, Vt. : Pickering & Chatto, 2011.

Summary:

"Investigating the aesthetics of the zenana--the female quarters of the Indic home or palace--this study discusses the history of architecture, fashion, jewellery and cuisine in princely Indian states during the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The women of these groups inhabited multiple worlds, equally at home in their often remote semi-autonomous princely states as in the metropolitan cities of British India and Europe or at 'coming out' parties in London. During British colonial rule, zenana women were avid patrons of European jewellers, architects and chefs, juxtaposing traditional Indian styles with incoming Western trends. Drawing on a wide variety of sources such as government records, cookbooks, design manuals and memoirs, Jhala illustrates how material culture became representative of authority, sexuality, tradition and the idea of the 'indigenous' during the high noon of the Raj. In doing so, Jhala provides a portrait of a hitherto under-studied hybrid, cosmopolitan perspective, constructed from a uniquely female world, which has relevance to this day."--P. [4] of cover.

Contents:

Introduction : cosmopolitan collectors

The Dholpur jewellery dispute, c. 1913 : state jewels, Stridhana and zenana patrons

Trans-regional chefs, kitchens and cookbooks : food in the colonial and postcolonial zenana

The tawa'if and the Maharani : the influence of royal aesthetics on Indian cinema, tourism and popular culture

The Pardah princess : Orientalist portraits of the zenana in Merchant Ivory's Films

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-221) and index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Sabin W. Colton, Jr., Memorial Fund.

ISBN:

1851960643

9781851960644

OCLC:

694600690

Publisher Number:

99947773287