NON-EXPORTABLE

(SET OF FOUR)

"AMONG THE FINEST AQUATINTS OF MOUNTAIN SCENERY EVER PRODUCED" (Godrej and Rohatgi)

TITLE:
a) View of the Country from Urshalun Teeba
b) Crossing the Touse
c) Bheem ke Udar
d) Assemblageof Hillmen
ARTIST: Drawn by James Baillie Fraser and Engraved by R. Havell & son
PUBLISHER: Messrs. Rodwell and Martin
YEAR: 1820
MEDIUM: Colour aquatint
SURFACE: Paper
SIZE:
IMAGE SIZE: 44 x 58 cm (each)
WITH MOUNT: 64 x 76.5 cm (each)

a) View of the Country from Urshalun Teeba
This coloured aquatint by Robert Havell and Son from plate 3 after JB Fraser 'Views in the Himala Mountains'. On 18 June 1815 Fraser and his brother William reached Urshalun, near towhere the Nepalese General Kirti Rana had surrendered. Three days later James celebrated his 32nd birthday by climbing the peak, Tiba, behind the village. (British Library Board)

b) Crossing the Touse
This coloured aquatint was made by Robert Havell and Son from plate 10 of JB Fraser's 'Views in the Himala Mountains'. It shows a detachment of William Fraser's 'Irregulars' crossing the River Tons - a tributary of the Yamuna - by means of a harness dangling from a rope. Crossing riversin the Himalayas was always a hazardous undertaking as the waters from the mountains were often raging torrents. (British Library Board)

c) Bheem ke Udar
This coloured aquatint was made by Robert Havell and Son from plate 7 of JB Fraser's 'Views in the Himala Mountains'. While crossing the mountain pass between the valleys of the Ganges and Yamuna rivers, on their way to the source of the latter, Fraser and his party spent a night at this spot. It is named after Bhima, one of the fivePandava brothers in the epic Mahabharata. Fraser wrote: "Our encamping ground was ... a cave under a large stone, called Bheem-Ke-Udar; in a dry night it is sufficiently comfortable, but rain would readily beat in. In this cavern, and under a few other large stones around it, there was some shelter, though scanty for our company." (British Library Board)

d) Assemblage of Hillmen
This coloured aquatint was made by Robert Havell and Son from plate 12 in JB Fraser's 'Views in the Himala Mountains'. James and his brother William met with many hill tribes in villages along the way as they travelled the Himalayan region. James sketched many of these groups and was fascinated by the diversity of their facial features and dress. The detachment accompanying the Fraser brothers became known as 'Fraser's Irregulars'. It was made up of 600 men from the hill states, mostly Kumaon tribesmen, together with Mewatis, Gujars and Sikhs, plus about 100 Pathans. Officers of the Gurkha Army were of the Chetri, or warrior caste, and regular soldiers were made up of Nepalese hill-tribes, particularly the Magars and Gurungs, whom the British mistakenly thought of as 'real Gurkhas'. (Britsih Libray Board)

James Baillie Fraser (1783-1856) was a Scottish traveler and artist, who, following the end of the war with Nepal in 1815 traveled with his brother William to the Himalayas, spending two months exploring the region. They became the first Europeans to reach the sources of the Jumna and Ganges rivers. Tutored by the artist George Chinnery, Fraser was encouraged by William Havell to publish his sketches upon his return to Calcutta. Fraser's account of his travels was separately published as 'Journal of a Tour through Part of the Snowy Range of the Himala Mountains, and to the Sources of the Rivers Jumna and Ganges'. (Britsih Libray Board)

REFERENCE: Abbey Travel 498.