1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910827745903321

Autore

Jhala Angma Dey

Titolo

Royal patronage, power and aesthetics in princely india

Pubbl/distr/stampa

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

ISBN

1-315-65360-5

1-317-31657-6

1-283-14032-2

9786613140326

1-85196-074-0

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

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

Collana

Empires in perspective

Disciplina

305.489621095409034

Soggetti

Royal houses - India - History - 20th century

Royal houses - India - History - 19th century

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

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

India Court and courtiers History 20th century

India Court and courtiers History 19th century

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

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

Nota di contenuto

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.

Sommario/riassunto

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.