Sita Ram's Painted Views of India: Lord Hastings's Journey from Calcutta to the Punjab, 1814 - 15

Summary

Lord Hastings's journal of his travels from Calcutta to the Punjab in 1814-1815 records the events and views of this journey accompanied by 200 large watercolour illustrations by Sita Ram. This book includes an edited version of the journal charting his passage through the India of the early nineteenth century. Though Sita Ram's picturesque paintings were a sharp departure from the accurate `Company' views of Indian monuments, they nonetheless revealed his eye for architectural detail. Taking the readers along as part of Lord Hastings's party, J. P. Losty brings alive the seventeen- month long expedition in a flotilla of 220 boats from Barrackpore past Patna, Benares, Allahabad and Cawnpore, and then overland to Lucknow, Delhi and the Punjab, through Sita Ram's never-before-published paintings of Colonial India.