India.- Daniell (Thomas) Follower of. The Sacred Tree of the Hindoos at Gyah, Bahar, watercolour, brush and ink, with grey wash border with title and artist's name 'f. de Moser 1803' in the lower right corner, sheet 485 x 650 mm (19 x 25 1/2 in), under glass, framed, [circa 1800]
⁂ One of the most important pilgrimage sites in India, with the Akshaya Vata or Undying Banyan Tree, where pilgrims make offerings to the spirit of their ancestors. The Daniell's were there in March 1790, with Thomas Daniell noting "Gyah is a place of great antiquity, much resorted to by the Hindoos...[with] fragments of mutilated idols, the work of Mahomeddan intolerance... still regarded with veneration." The present work appears to be a contemporary copy of the Daniell's aquatint [cf. Archer, Mildred, Early Views of India, The Picturesque Journeys of Thomas and William Daniell 1786-1794, 1980, no. 15.]
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