Royal patronage, power and aesthetics in princely india.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jhala, Angma Dey.

Series:

Empires in perspective.

Empires in perspective

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.

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

India.

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

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 231 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

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

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Investigating the aesthetics of the <i>zenana</i> - 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. <br> During British colonial rule, <i>zenana</i> 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.

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:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 02 Oct 2015).

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

1-315-65360-5

1-317-31657-6

1-283-14032-2

9786613140326

1-85196-074-0

9781315653600

OCLC:

735623561