Picture Details
Women husking paddy with a dhenki
Partner:
British LibraryImage reference:
BL.Add.Or.3965Origin:
Orissa, IndiaArtist / Date:
Unknown, c.1840Size:
222 x 279 mmDescription:
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This painting is from a set of Company drawings depicting servants, modes of transport, occupations and festivals. `Company painting' denotes a style of European-influenced art executed by Indian artists for European patrons in the 18th and 19th century. Here women engage in husking paddy while a parrot looks on. In the background is a thatched house and an immense storage jar for grain. The women wear simple white cotton saris in the Oriya style. In the early 19th century, Company painting developed in the province of Orissa, centred in Cuttack, the capital, where British officers were stationed. The dhenki is a wooden device solely operated by women, and used to husk paddy, flatten rice and make rice powder, which was a feature of rural homes in East India. It was a source of income to poorer households whose women were hired by rich farmers to operate dhenkis, especially at harvest-time. At least three women were required to work the dhenki.
