Photo 972, 8(417)

Genre: Ethnographical Photography

Full-length seated portrait. 'The very picturesque figure represented in this plate is a Dasare, a member of the Kunbi class, who has taken upon himself vows of poverty, mendicancy, and pilgrimages to holy places, and the service of God generally, in consequence of some vow. He wears a plume of peacocks' feathers in his turban, which is generally composed of portions of other old turbans of various materials and sizes. He has painted his caste mark in imitation of a Sri Vishnu Brahmin, while he has smeared his face and eyelids with white ashes, and probably the end or lower part of his nose is red with applied vermillion. Round his neck is a perforated copper plate, brightly polished, exhibiting an incarnation of Vishnu, a mounted conch shell, and a necklace of large wooden beads. A dressed soft panther skin is around his waist, which may serve for a seat or a bed at night, and a bell hangs at his waist, which tinkles as he moves along. In his hand, lying across his knees, is a long straight sword, with a Mahratta handle, and his dress is probably of quilted calico, dyed with the bark of the acacia to that dull yellow-brown colour, which is adopted by all devotees...'

Subjects = ascetics; Dasaris; ethnic groups; Kunbis; mendicants; printed books; Watson and Kaye, 'People of India' (8 vols, 1868-75); Watson and Kaye, 'People of India' (vol 8, 1875)

Location = India; Karnataka; Mysore district