THE MUGHAL EMPEROR AKBAR II (R.1806-1837) IN PROCESSION WITH HIS SONS, THE RESIDENT AND AN ESCORT OF SKINNER'S HORSE, DELHI SCHOOL, INDIA, CIRCA 1827-1830

Eyre & Hobhouse Ltd., Company Painting. A Century of Indian Art for European Patrons 1770-1870, 1982, no.28

This representation of a durbar procession is one of the foremost of a genre popular in the early nineteenth century. Being simultaneously remarkably detailed and energetic, this painting epitomises the portrayal of such processions.

The crowded yet ordered scene breathes life into the traditional celebration of one of the festivals of Eid, when a procession such as this would have paraded through the imperial city of Delhi. Each charmingly rendered vignette provides a new activity for scrutiny: leading the procession are elephants and camel riders firing into the air; then come another troupe of elephants, their riders bearing various standards and emblems of the realm, including a gold sun, an umbrella or chatra, a flag emblazoned with a rayed sun, Fatima's hand, two golden fish suspended from a bow atop a pole, two fish heads and a monster. After this come two elephants in confrontation with a cageful of doves released above, beyond these are the royal trumpeters announcing the arrival of the emperor behind them. Akbar II sits in regal splendour in a golden howdah, fanned by a servant with a fly-whisk; the heir-apparent is also carried by an elephant, whilst the younger brothers ride in a European carriage. The British follow, with the Resident at Delhi, Edward Colebrooke (resident 1827-1830) upon an elephant, beyond which ride either Captain John Sutherland or Captain George R. Clerk, his first assistant and commander. The Imperial troops escorting the women's veiled howdahs follow, whilst Skinner's horse bring up the rear.

This scene, whilst aesthetically pleasing, is also a commentary on contemporary politics at a time when the power of the Mughal emperor was on the wane, and that of the colonial British on the rise. From the turn of the century until the 1840s the British controlled the city of Delhi, yet continued to pay formal tribute to an emperor whose aegis extended only within the walls of the Red Fort. The secondary involvement of the British in the pageantry and royal processions of the day, as depicted here, suggests a sensitivity to appearances on behalf of the Colony and contradicts the genuine hierarchy of command.

Called Sikander Sahib, Colonel James Skinner the commander of the horse embodies this Anglo-Indian culture. Born of a mixed British and Indian heritage, Skinner's mother was a princess of the Rajput and his father the Scottish son of the Provost of Montros; he was raised in India. Preferring the Mughal way of life, Skinner kept a harem of Indian women, both Muslim and Hindu, and favoured his formal Muslim title. Nominally, however, he was Christian and brought his children up as such. Skinner's renown lay in his skill on the battlefield, and his cavalry were instrumental in the British subjugation of India. The horsemen under his leadership never lost a battle, and the epithet 'Sikander' is a tribute to his talents in its allusion to the legendary Alexander the Great.

A similar scroll can be found in the India Office Library published in Archer 1972, no.168.