NON-EXPORTABLE

TITLE: A Street Scene in Bombay
ARTIST: William Simpson
PUBLISHER: Day and Son
YEAR: 1862
MEDIUM: Chromolithograph
SURFACE: Paper pasted on board
IMAGE SIZE: 49.3 x 34.5 cm
WITH MOUNT: 69 x 53 cm

Chromolithograph from plate 4 of William Simpson's India, Ancient and Modern: A Series of Illustrations of the Country and People of India and adjacent Territories. The artist depicts the teeming street of the bustling city of Bombay , the hub of Indiantrade. A distinct feature of the architecture was the elaborate red-and-green coloured carving on wooden pillars and beams of houses. The man in a white turban reading a book is a Parsi priest. Simpson wrote: "the high turban of a Parsi is sure to greet you everywhere." The Parsis, are followers of the Zoroastrian religion and were mostly concentrated in Bombay. Their ancestors had emigrated to Sindh and Gujarat from Greater Iran to avoid persecution after the Arab Conquest of Persia between the 8th and 10 century. At the time of this image they began to adopt elements of western fashion, along with their

traditional attire. (British Library Board)