‘For a little amusement’: A Brutal Look at Leisure in Early Modern Indo-Danish Relations

Mon 27 October 2014

S2 seminar room

A beautifully painted textile, known as the Tranquebar palampore, has sat unstudied in the Danish Design Museum for a little less than a century. At first glance, it depicts a world of violence: An elephant runs rampant, leaving a trail of mangled corpses behind it, Danish soldiers fire canons, while a woman trains her gun at a fleeing deer and a man stabs a squealing pig through the heart. Hence, although little was known of its patronage or arrival in Denmark, it has been unanimously used by Danish historians as an illustration of early modern Danish military ‘dominance’ in Southern India. This is a fallacy. At closer observation, a world of both Danish and Indian royalty and splendour reveals itself alongside a leisurely, early modern and decidedly everyday brutality. My paper will reveal previously unrecognized primary evidence that suggests the textile was commissioned by the Maratha ruler, Tukkoji I of Thanjavur. Moreover, this visual evidence will shed important light on the rituals and ceremonies associated with gift giving and tribute in early modern South Indian courts. Ultimately, the textile provides a richly detailed glance into the world of diplomatic relations between Europe and India in the early eighteenth century.
Josefine Baark, Department of Art History, University of Cambridge

Cost: Free