MoraThibeault4 at 19:34, 7 April 2026

2026-04-07T19:34:15Z

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{{Short description|19th-century erotic art depicting Bengali women}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2023}}
{{Use Indian English|date=July 2023}}
[[File:Promoda Sundari.jpg|thumb|Promoda Sundari, [[chromolithograph]], Chorebagan Art Studio, late 19th century]]
'''Sundari paintings''' or '''Sundari images''' are a type of [[pin-up]] or [[erotic art]] that were popular in 19th-century [[Kolkata|Calcutta]], in the province of [[Bengal]] in [[British India]].<ref name=":0">''The Babu & the Bazaar: Art from the 19th & Early 20th–Century Bengal.'' Aditi Nath Sharkar, with Shatadeep Maitra. DAG Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, 2022. {{ISBN|978-93-81217-90-0}}.</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=The Babu and the Bazaar |url=https://dagworld.com/the%20babu%20and%20the%20bazaar.html |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=dagworld.com |language=en}}</ref> Mostly sold as [[popular print|prints]], the images depict women, particularly the new class of [[Bengali Hindus|Bengali Hindu]] [[widow]]s who took up [[Prostitution in India|sex work]] to survive, and are valuable references to understand the position of women in a society that was undergoing drastic shifts.<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Lakshmi |first=Rama |date=2023-05-29 |title=Between the brothel and Brindavan—Bengal art shows twin faces of Hindu widows after sati ban |url=https://theprint.in/feature/around-town/between-the-brothel-and-brindavan-bengal-art-shows-twin-faces-of-hindu-widows-after-sati-ban/1599982/ |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=ThePrint |language=en-US}}</ref>

Each Sundari, literally meaning 'beautiful woman', had a peculiar characteristic, such as playing the [[tabla]], preparing [[Betel nut chewing|paan]], tuning the [[violin]], or posing enticingly with [[rose]]s.<ref name=":2" /> Sundari images depict 19th-century Bengali Hindu woman who had to occupy the conflicted identity position of the widow and the [[courtesan]], owing to the series of socio-political disruptions happening during the period.<ref name=":2" /> The paintings provide a commentary on the larger social phenomenon of widowhood, that forced women into [[prostitution]], which became prevalent during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in Bengal post the abolition of ''[[Sati (practice)|sati]]''.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

== Form and style ==
Sundari paintings were usually sold as [[chromolithograph]] prints, or [[Watercolor painting|watercolour]] ''pats'', and even [[oil painting]]s. They were produced by popular art studios set up during the 1890s, such as the Chorebagan Art Studio, the Kansaripara Art Studio, etc.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> The art studios inherited the style of [[Kalighat painting]] that portrayed a wide variety of subjects, including modern day scandals, the ''[[Babu (title)|babus]]'' and ''bibis'', etc.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Kalighat Paintings: Babu, Bibi and Scandal |url=https://www.thevoiceoffashion.com/intersections/culture/kalighat-paintings-babu-bibi-and-scandal-5540 |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=www.thevoiceoffashion.com |language=en}}</ref> These paintings were in direct contrast with the religious oil paintings and prints that were being produced around the same time. The religious paintings were placed in temple rooms, mansions and respectable homes, while erotica paintings of Sundaris decorated the private quarters, dancing room of the ''babus'', or the dancing parlours.<ref name=":1" /> In most of these paintings, the Sundaris were depicted draped in the widow's garment, the typical white saree. These women were akin to the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] courtesans or [[Tawaif|''tawaifs'']]. The paintings served as [[Pin-up model|pin-ups]] for the gentry class. However, they have a dark history.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-08 |title=The Babu And The Bazaar: A Journey Through 19th And 20th Century Calcutta |url=https://www.oneworldnews.com/travel-and-leisure/the-babu-and-the-bazaar-a-journey-through-19th-and-20th-century-calcutta/ |access-date=2023-06-14 |language=en-US}}</ref>

== History ==
Reformers like [[Ram Mohan Roy]] and [[Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar]] championed the cause of women's rights in Bengal, heralding some of the most transformative changes at the turn of the century. ''[[Sati (practice)|Sati]]'' was [[Bengal Sati Regulation, 1829|abolished]], [[Hindu Widows' Remarriage Act, 1856|widow remarriage was legalised]], and [[Child marriage in India|child marriage]] was [[Age of Consent Act, 1891|restrained]] in an attempt to end [[polygamy]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Chakraborty |first=Rachana |title=Women's Education and Empowerment in Colonial Bengal |date=2009 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mt0s.9 |work=Responding to the West |pages=87–102 |editor-last=Hägerdal |editor-first=Hans |access-date=2023-06-14 |series=Essays on Colonial Domination and Asian Agency |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |jstor=j.ctt46mt0s.9 |isbn=978-90-8964-093-2}}</ref> However, orthodox and upper-caste families refused to accept these changes. After the abolition of ''sati'', the [[Kulin Brahmin|Kulin]] (upper-class [[Brahmin]]) families, unable to accept the widows, abandoned them as liabilities, forcing them to work as prostitutes, or migrate to [[Vrindavan|Brindavan]], the refuge for widows. Since the widows were rejected by their families, prostitution became a way of survival.<ref name=":2" />

Sumanta Banerjee highlights how the "first generation of prostitutes on the colonial world of market economy of 19th-century Bengal" included most significantly the widows from Kulin, besides women who were raped, abducted, struck by [[Famine in India|famine]], or abject poverty."<ref>{{Cite journal |date=1993-11-06 |title=The Beshya and the Babu-Prostitute and Her Clientele in 19th Century Bengal |url=https://www.epw.in/journal/1993/45/special-articles/beshya-and-babu-prostitute-and-her-clientele-19th-century-bengal |language=en |volume=28 |issue=45}}</ref> This is corroborated by [[Alexander Mackenzie (civil servant)|Alexander Mackenzie's]] account. A British civil servant, Mackenzie informed in a letter to H. L. Dampier, the Official [[Secretary to the Government of India]] in 1892, that “In Bengal, the prostitute class seems to be chiefly recruited from the ranks of Hindu widows.”<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Chatterjee |first=Ratnabali |date=1993 |title=Prostitution in Nineteenth Century Bengal: Construction of Class and Gender |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3520431 |journal=Social Scientist |volume=21 |issue=9/11 |pages=159–172 |doi=10.2307/3520431 |jstor=3520431 |issn=0970-0293|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Usha Chakraborty, in her book ''Condition of Bengali Women around the 2nd Half of the 19th Century'' cites a survey report of 1850s. According to the report, out of 12,000 women working as sex workers in Kolkata during the time, 10,000 were Hindu widows. Most of them hailed from Kulin Brahmin families.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chakraborty |first=Usha |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qxMqAAAAYAAJ |title=Condition of Bengali Women Around the 2nd Half of the 19th Century |date=1963 |publisher=Usha Chakraborty |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Prostitution in Colonial India - Mainstream Weekly |url=https://www.mainstreamweekly.net/article2142.html |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=www.mainstreamweekly.net}}</ref>

While the legal prohibitions against ''sati'', and child marriage, saved the women from death, social dignity was still a long way to come{{Dash}}in this sense, the women were caught between conflicted positions of identity, and disjunct worlds of the past, present and future.<ref name=":2" /> The women remain stranded as tradition and modernity clashed. [[Tapati Guha-Thakurta|Tapati Guha Thakurta]] noted how this resulted in a “a sharp edge in all cultural expressions” of that period.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Thakurta |first=Tapati Guha |date=1991 |title=Women as 'Calendar Art' Icons: Emergence of Pictorial Stereotype in Colonial India |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/4398221 |journal=Economic and Political Weekly |volume=26 |issue=43 |pages=WS91–WS99 |jstor=4398221 |issn=0012-9976}}</ref>

According to Shatadeep Maitra, art produced during the 19th century in Calcutta outlined the several changes that were happening due to the colonial influence.<ref name=":2" /> Gods and Monsters wearing Oxford shoes,{{clarify|date=August 2023|reason=is this literal, or an oblique reference to something?}} women wearing blouses, changes in the official language policy as [[Indian English|English]] replaced [[Persian language in the Indian subcontinent|Persian]], etc., were documented on the canvas. Similarly, Maitra states how “the end of ''sati pratha'' and its social consequences became mixed with popular imagery. Having limited or no education, many women whose husbands had died had to rely on sex work for survival.”<ref name=":2" /> The Sundari paintings were produced as a result.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-09 |title='The Babu and The Bazaar' at DAG celebrates art of 19th-Century Bengal |url=https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/the-babu-and-the-bazaar-at-dag-celebrates-art-of-19th-century-bengal-8653535/ |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=The Indian Express |language=en}}</ref>

The images served as pin-ups, but also involved voyeuristic dynamics as the women were shown wearing translucent saris. The paintings provided an entry point into the "sanctum sanctorum of a woman's home".<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-06-06 |title=An exhibition that spotlights the female figure in early Bengal art |url=https://lifestyle.livemint.com//how-to-lounge/art-culture/exhibition-female-figure-early-bengal-art-dag-111686025301891.html |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=Mintlounge |language=en}}</ref>

Noting the problem of ''sati'', in his 1916 [[Columbia University]] thesis, [[B. R. Ambedkar]] wrote: "Sati, enforced widowhood, and girl marriage are customs that were primarily intended to solve the problem of the surplus man and surplus woman in a caste and to maintain its endogamy ... Burning the widow eliminates all the three evils that a surplus woman is fraught with. Being dead and gone, she creates no problem of remarriage either inside or outside the caste."<ref>{{Cite web |title=Castes in India: Their Mechanism, Genesis, and Development, by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar |url=http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00ambedkar/txt_ambedkar_castes.html |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=www.columbia.edu}}</ref>

== Types ==

=== Pramoda Sundari ===

Pramoda Sundari images depict a woman sitting with several grooming products, brushing her hair while holding a mirror before her face. The paintings show an objectified representation of women engaged in self-care.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

=== Anuragini ===

This is an example of a later Sundari iconography. The images depicting Anuragini, which means 'piety' in Bengali, show mature iconography. Her red saree connotes fertility, typically a power reserved for gods. In the backdrop, often other images are included hinting at mixed connotations. For instance, in a version produced by the Kansaripara Studio, there is a sculpture showing a goose being choked by an angel, in the background. This is a conventional Greco-Egyptian metaphor of the victory of good over evil. The same painting also subtly indicates that it is midnight on the cuckoo-clock, alluding to sexual meanings.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

=== Bibi ===

The Bibi, (a term usually referred to a married [[Bengali Muslims|Bengali Muslim]] woman), in this context formed another category of popular erotic art. Bibi was usually posed like the woman in the Pramoda Sundari prints, and her marital status was clearly indicated by the mark of vermillion on her forehead. The woman depicted is clearly objectified as a flirtatious lady desirable to all men around her.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />
=== Golap and Paan Sundari ===

In Golap Sundari paintings,<ref>{{Cite web |title=Golap Sundari, c.1900 by Nibaran Chandra Ghosh - art print from King & McGaw |url=https://www.kingandmcgaw.com/prints/nibaran-chandra-ghosh/golap-sundari-c-1900-437453 |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=King & McGaw |language=en}}</ref> a woman was depicted holding a ''golap'', or rose in Bengali, and posing licentiously, attracting her lover. Paan Sundari paintings was of a subtler idiom, but also had with sexual connotations. The latter depicted a woman preparing a [[Betel nut chewing|betel-leaf]], or ''paan'', often known for its [[aphrodisiac]] quality.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2020-11-20 |title=History of paan: a well-loved Indian treat wrapped in a betel leaf |url=https://www.scmp.com/lifestyle/food-drink/article/3110313/history-paan-indian-treat-made-betel-leaf-thats-recommended |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=South China Morning Post |language=en}}</ref> The Paan Sundari image was also refined later by the Kansaripara Art Studio in what was called the Kumada Sundari paintings showing a bejewelled woman preparing a paan, probably for herself, or perhaps for her client. In a variant of a Golap Sundari painting, two women are portrayed sharing a rose{{Dash}}the flower here stands clearly as a metaphor for the lover. The ''sarees'' of the two women are painted in a way so as to present an illusion of them sharing a single piece of clothing.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

=== Manada Sundari ===

Manada Sundari prints were produced by the Kamarpara Art Studio. Similar to other Sundaris represented with musical instruments, the Manada figure sketch initially was drawn with an oval face that was gradually refined in later stages. The instruments such as the violin are shown proportionally bigger in size. The background too features prominently in these prints: ranging from carpeted flooring, to textured patterns, and marbled skirting. The prints were based on illustrations made by different artists of the Studio.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" />

=== Nalini Sundari ===
A Nalini Sundari, usually shown wearing expensive jewellery and ''[[ghungroo]]'' on her right foot, is depicted playing a ''bayan tabla'', a percussion instrument. She is categorised as one of the Sundaris associated with musical instruments. The objectification of her image is closely comparable to the Mughal ''tawaifs'' or courtesans. Her translucent white saree with a black border corroborates the fact, merging in her identity both traces of a widow and a courtesan.<ref name=":2" /><ref>{{Cite web |title=Whores, a painted history |url=https://www.telegraphindia.com/west-bengal/the-telegraph-on-the-earliest-images-of-bengals-sex-workers-and-what-they-reveal-about-contemporary-society/cid/1938493 |access-date=2023-06-14 |website=www.telegraphindia.com |language=en}}</ref>

== Gallery ==
<gallery widths="200" heights="200">
File:Bibi (Sundari Painting).jpg|Bibi, [[chromolithograph]] on paper, late 19th or early 20th century
File:Golaap Sundari.jpg|Golap Sundari, oil on canvas, late 19th century
File:Nalini Sundari.jpg|Nalini Sundari, Kansaripara Art Studio, late 19th century
File:Paan Sundari.jpg|Paan Sundari, oil on canvas, late 19th century
File:Sundaris Sharing A Rose.jpg|Sundaris sharing a rose, oil on canvas, late 19th century
File:Manada Sundari.jpg|Manada Sundari, [[chromolithograph]] by Kansaripara Art Studio, late 19th century
</gallery>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Indian painting]]
[[Category:Paintings of women]]
[[Category:Culture of Bengal]]
[[Category:Works about prostitution in India]]
[[Category:Erotic art]]
[[Category:Printmaking]]
[[Category:19th-century paintings]]

Sundari painting - Revision history

MoraThibeault4 at 19:34, 7 April 2026