Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T05:39:51.744Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sultan among Dutchmen? Royal dress at court audiences in South India, as portrayed in local works of art and Dutch embassy reports, seventeenth–eighteenth centuries*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 June 2016

LENNART BES
LENNART BES*
Affiliation:
Radboud University Nijmegen and Leiden University (Eurasian Empires Programme), the Netherlands Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

From the fourteenth century CE onwards, South Indian states ruled by Hindu kings were strongly influenced by politico-cultural conventions from Muslim-governed areas. This development was, for instance, manifest in the dress and titles of the rulers of the Vijayanagara empire. As has been argued, they bore the title of sultan and on public occasions they appeared in garments fashioned on Persian and Arab clothing. Both adaptations exemplified efforts to connect to the dominant Indo-Islamic world. From Vijayanagara's fragmentation in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, new Hindu-ruled kingdoms arose. We may wonder to what extent those succeeding polities continued practices adopted from Islamic courts. With that question in mind, this article discusses royal dress at court audiences in four Vijayanagara successor states, chiefly on the basis of embassy reports of the Dutch East India Company and South Indian works of art. It appears that kings could wear a variety of clothing styles at audiences and that influences on these styles now came from multiple backgrounds, comprising diverse Islamic and other elements. Further, not all successor states followed the same dress codes, as their dynasties modified earlier conventions in different ways, depending on varying political developments.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 50 , Issue 6 , November 2016 , pp. 1792 - 1845
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

*

Earlier drafts of this article were presented at the Eurasian Empires summer school at the University of Amsterdam in August 2012 and at the Empire in Asia conference at the National University of Singapore in November 2014. I wish to thank the participants for commenting on my presentations. Further, I am very thankful to one anonymous reviewer of Modern Asian Studies for her or his highly valuable remarks, which have greatly improved this article. I am also grateful to the École française d'Extrême-Orient (EFEO) and its staff members Valérie Gillet and Jean Deloche at Pondicherry for allowing me to use two photos taken at the Narumpunadasvami Temple in Tiruppudaimarudur. Moreover, I would like to thank Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer, Phillip Wagoner, Jos Gommans, Jinna Smit, Manjusha Kuruppath, George Michell, Anna Seastrand, Jennifer Howes, Anna Dallapiccola, Indira Peterson, Gijs Kruijtzer, Peter Rietbergen, Ines Županov, Kate Delaney, several other anonymous reviewers, and my fellow imperial explorers in the Eurasian Empires programme, especially Kim Ragetli, Marie Favereau, and Liesbeth Geevers. All made useful suggestions, while some also tried to help me avoid art-historical pitfalls. If these efforts have proven unsuccessful, only I am responsible for this, as I am for any of the ideas proposed here. In addition to the sources and literature mentioned below, my research for this article included a visit to the Ramnad palace in April 2012.

References

1 British Library, London: Department of Asian, Pacific, and African Collections (hereafter BL/APAC), Mackenzie General Collection (hereafter Mack. Gen.), part 4, no. 4: ‘Mootiah's chronological & historical account of the modern kings of Madura’, f. 69.

2 Cotton, J. S., Charpentier, J. H. R. T., and Johnston, E. H., Catalogue of Manuscripts in European Languages Belonging to the Library of the India Office, Vol. 1, Pt. 2, The Mackenzie General and Miscellaneous Collections (London: British Library, 1992), pp. 49–50 Google Scholar; BL/APAC, Mack. Gen., part 4, no. 4, f. 41; Dirks, Nicholas B., The Hollow Crown. Ethnohistory of an Indian Kingdom (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), pp. 76–7 (n. 42)Google Scholar.

3 Wagoner, Phillip B., ‘“Sultan among Hindu Kings”. Dress, Titles, and the Islamicization of Hindu Culture at Vijayanagara’, The Journal of Asian Studies, 55:4 (1996), passim CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Bayly, Susan, Saints, Goddesses and Kings. Muslims and Christians in South Indian Society, 1700–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989), p. 98 Google Scholar; Edgar Thurston, Castes and Tribes of Southern India (Madras: Government Press, 1909), Vol. VI, p. 247; C.K. Srinivasan, Maratha Rule in the Carnatic (Annamalainagar: Annamalai University, 1944), p. 343.

5 Wagoner, ‘“Sultan among Hindu Kings”’.

6 Relatively recent general works on Vijayanagara include: Burton Stein, Vijayanagara, The New Cambridge History of India I, 2 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989); Eaton, Richard M., A Social History of the Deccan, 1300–1761. Eight Indian Lives, The New Cambridge History of India I, 8 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), Chs 1–4 CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sharma, M. H. Rāma, The History of the Vijayanagar Empire, 2 vols, Gopal, M. H. (ed.) (Bombay: Popular Prakashan, 1978, 1980)Google Scholar.

7 Tradition has it that the Nayaka rulers of Madurai, Tanjavur, and Senji (or Gingee), all successors of Vijayanagara, served as the bearers of the emperor's betel-leaf box, fan, and spittoon at imperial coronations. See for instance: Saulière, A., ‘The Revolt of the Southern Nayaks’ [Part I], Journal of Indian History, XLII:I (1964), p. 104 Google Scholar; Aiyar, R. Sathyanatha, History of the Nayaks of Madura (Madras: Oxford University Press, 1924 Google Scholar; reprint New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1991), pp. 45–6; Vink, Markus, Mission to Madurai. Dutch Embassies to the Nayaka Court of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century, Dutch Sources on South Asia c. 1600–1825, 4 (New Delhi: Manohar, 2012), pp. 288, 345Google Scholar. That this tradition was still remembered in South India in the mid eighteenth century—when both the empire and the abovementioned Nayaka states had vanished—is clear from the mention the Dutch Governor Jacob Mossel of the Coromandel Coast made of it in the report (memorie van overgave) he left for his successor in February 1744, and from references in an anonymous Dutch survey of India's political history published in 1758. See respectively: Nationaal Archief (National Archives of the Netherlands), The Hague (hereafter NA), Archives of the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company, access no. 1.04.02, hereafter VOC), no. 2631, f. 408; Beknopte historie, van het Mogolsche keyzerryk en de zuydelyke aangrensende ryken (Batavia: C. C. Renhard, 1758), pp. 1, 87.

8 For the Nayakas of Madurai and their political and cultural history, see for example: Sathyanatha Aiyar, History of the Nayaks of Madura; Rao, Velcheru Narayana, Shulman, David, and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, Symbols of Substance. Court and State in Nāyaka Period Tamilnadu (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1992)Google Scholar; Markus Vink, ‘Encounters on the Opposite Coast. Cross-Cultural Contacts between the Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century’, PhD thesis, University of Minnesota, 1999. See also Wagoner, Phillip B., Tidings of the King. A Translation and Ethnohistorical Analysis of the Rāyavācakamu (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1993), Part 1Google Scholar.

9 Dynastic histories of Ikkeri are found in: Swaminathan, K. D., The Nāyakas of Ikkēri (Madras: P. Varadachary & Co., 1957)Google Scholar; Chitnis, K. N., Keḷadi Polity, Research Publications 17 (Dharwar: Karnatak University, 1974), Ch. 2Google Scholar; and to a lesser extent Lennart Bes, ‘Toddlers, Widows, and Bastards Enthroned. Dynastic Successions in Early-Modern South India as Observed by the Dutch’, Leidschrift. Historisch Tijdschrift, 27:1 (2012), pp. 126–8.

10 For overviews of Tanjavur's dynasties, see: Vriddhagirisan, V., The Nayaks of Tanjore (Annamalainagar: Annamali University, 1942 Google Scholar; reprint New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1995); Subramanian, K. R., The Maratha Rajas of Tanjore (Madras, 1928 Google Scholar; reprint New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1988); Srinivasan, Maratha Rule in the Carnatic; Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, Penumbral Visions. Making Polities in Early Modern South India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), pp. 144–52CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Narayana Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance.

11 Dynastic histories of Ramnad include: K. Seshadri, ‘The Sētupatis of Ramnad’, thesis, University of Madurai, 1976; Kadhirvel, S., A History of the Maravas, 1700–1802 (Madurai: Madurai Publishing House, 1977)Google Scholar; Bes, Lennart, ‘The Setupatis, the Dutch, and Other Bandits in Eighteenth-Century Ramnad (South India)’, Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 44:4 (2001)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the kumāravarkkam, see for instance Dirks, The Hollow Crown, p. 102.

12 Wagoner, ‘“Sultan among Hindu Kings”’, pp. 853–5.

13 See Eaton, Richard M. and Wagoner, Phillip B., Power, Memory, Architecture. Contested Sites on India's Deccan Plateau, 1300–1600 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014), pp. 4, 20–32 Google Scholar.

14 This argument is most explicitly put forward in Wagoner, ‘“Sultan among Hindu Kings”’, pp. 853–5, 861–71, but see also: Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan, Chs 1–4; Subrahmanyam, Penumbral Visions, pp. 227–8; Howes, Jennifer, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India. Material Culture and Kingship (London/New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2003), Ch. 4Google Scholar.

15 Wagoner, ‘“Sultan among Hindu Kings”’, pp. 856–61, 868–71; Lefèvre, Vincent, ‘À propos d'une célèbre toile peinte (kalamkari) de la collection Riboud au musée Guimet’, in Chambert-Loir, Henri and Dagens, Bruno (eds), Anamorphoses. Hommage à Jacques Dumarçay (Paris: Les Indes Savantes, 2006)Google Scholar, passim. See also: Michell, George, Architecture and Art of Southern India. Vijayanagara and the Successor States, The New Cambridge History of India I, 6 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 250–2CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, pp. 73–4, 95; Gittinger, Mattiebelle, Master Dyers to the World. Technique and Trade in Early Dyed Cotton Textiles (Washington: Textile Museum, 1982), pp. 120–7, 133Google Scholar. For other depictions of traditional and Persianate dress at the Vijayanagara court, see for example: Verghese, Anila, ‘Court Attire of Vijayanagara (from a Study of Monuments)’, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, LXXXII:1–2 (1991), pp. 46–58 Google Scholar; Anna Libera Dallapiccola, ‘Sculptures on the Great Platform of Vijayanagara’, in Anila Verghese and Anna Libera Dallapiccola (eds), South India under Vijayanagara. Art and Archaeology (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011), pp. 111–12.

16 Wagoner, ‘“Sultan among Hindu Kings”’, pp. 861–7; Eaton, A Social History of the Deccan, pp. 42–3; Verghese, ‘Court Attire of Vijayanagara’, pp. 50–2, 57. For the use of ‘Sultan’ in Vijayanagara royal titles, see also: Kulke, Hermann, ‘Mahārājas, Mahants and Historians. Reflections on the Historiography of Early Vijayanagara and Sringeri’, in Dallapiccola, Anna Libera and Lallemant, Stephanie Zingel-Avé (eds), Vijayanagara—City and Empire. New Currents of Research, Vol. 1, Beiträge zur Südasienforschung, Südasien-Institut, Universität Heidelberg 100 (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1985), p. 125 Google Scholar; Filliozat, Vasundhara, L’Épigraphie de Vijayanagar du début à 1377 (Paris: École française d'Extrême-Orient, 1973)Google Scholar, for example, pp. xvi, 23–4. For the ritual gifting of dress, see also Gordon, Stewart, ‘A World of Investiture’, in idem (ed.), Robes and Honor. The Medieval World of Investiture (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2001), passim Google Scholar.

17 For general overviews of the Dutch presence in India, see, for instance: Winius, George and Vink, Markus, The Merchant-Warrior Pacified. The VOC (The Dutch East India Co.) and its Changing Political Economy in India (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1991)Google Scholar; Gommans, Jos, Bes, Lennart, and Kruijtzer, Gijs, Dutch Sources on South Asia , Vol. 1, Bibliography and Archival Guide to the National Archives at The Hague (The Netherlands) (New Delhi: Manohar, 2001)Google Scholar.

18 From at least the 1690s to the 1730s, the Nayakas of Madurai appear to have undertaken inspection tours almost annually to the kingdom's southern Fishery Coast (including visits to pilgrimage sites at Tiruchendur and Punnaikayal). In addition to the sources below, see: NA, VOC, no. 1478, f. 1156; no. 2185, ff. 997-1023v; no. 8935, ff. 708–18: letter from Tuticorin to Jaffna, July 1690, (extracts of) correspondence between Tuticorin and Colombo, May–June 1721, April–June 1731, and report of meeting with the Nayaka at Tuticorin, May 1731; Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden, W.Ph. Coolhaas (ed.) (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976, 1979, 1985), Vol. VI, pp. 445–6, Vol. VII, pp. 369, 567, Vol. VIII, p. 19. For a reference to these frequent trips in a local source, see V. Rangachari, ‘The History of the Naik Kingdom of Madura’, The Indian Antiquary. A Journal of Oriental Research, XLVI (1917), p. 186.

19 For lists of Dutch records concerning some of these encounters, available in the National Archives at The Hague (for all courts), as well as in the Tamil Nadu Archives at Chennai (for Ikkeri) and the Department of National Archives (of Sri Lanka) at Colombo (for Madurai and Ramnad), see respectively: Gommans, Bes, and Kruijtzer, Dutch Sources on South Asia, Vol. 1, pp. 194–6, 244–51, 255, 312–13; Bes, Lennart and Kruijtzer, Gijs, Dutch Sources on South Asia c. 1600–1825 , Vol. 3, Archival Guide to Repositories Outside The Netherlands (New Delhi: Manohar, 2015), pp. 219, 297Google Scholar. For references to missions in the early seventeenth century, see: the first few volumes of Dagh-register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts-India (1624–82), 31 vols, H.T. Colenbrander et al. (eds) (Batavia/The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1887–1931); Terpstra, Heert, De vestiging van de Nederlanders aan de kust van Koromandel (Groningen: De Waal, 1911), pp. 85–6Google Scholar, 118, 124, 129-32; Raychaudhuri, Tapan, Jan Company in Coromandel 1605–1690. A Study in the Interrelations of European Commerce and Traditional Economies, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 38 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1962), Chs II–IIIGoogle Scholar. Documents concerning three embassies to Madurai (in 1668, 1677, and 1689) have been published and translated in Vink, Mission to Madurai. For summaries of three missions to Ramnad (in 1731, 1736, and 1743), see Lennart Bes, ‘Friendship as Long as the Sun and Moon Shine. Ramnad and its Perception of the Dutch East India Company, 1725–1750’, MA thesis, Leiden University, 1997, pp. 34–6, 47–9, 64–71. For summaries of two missions to Mysore (1681) and Ikkeri (1684), see Lennart Bes, ‘Thalassophobia, Women's Power, and Diplomatic Insult at Karnataka Courts. Two Dutch Embassies to Mysore and Ikkeri in the 1680s’ (unpublished article, 2014), passim. This survey does not include several Company embassies to Mysore during the period it was ruled by Haidar Ali Khan and Tipu Sultan (1761–99). For those missions, see van Lohuizen, J., The Dutch East India Company and Mysore, Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 31 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1961)Google Scholar.

20 See also: Kruijtzer, Gijs, Xenophobia in Seventeenth-Century India (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2009), pp. 15, 285–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Guido van Meersbergen, ‘Ethnography and Encounter. Dutch and English Approaches to Cross-Cultural Contact in Seventeenth-Century South Asia’, PhD thesis, University College London, 2015, pp. 75–7.

21 The regnal periods mentioned here and elsewhere in this study are largely based on Dutch records and may therefore differ from years established so far in secondary literature. For details, see my PhD thesis, tentatively titled ‘Imperial Servants on Local Thrones. Dynastic Politics in the Vijayanagara Successor States’ (Radboud University Nijmegen, forthcoming in 2016).

22 Vink, Mission to Madurai, pp. 381–422.

23 Ibid., pp. 452, 539 (translation by Markus Vink). For al-katīf, see Yule, Henry and Burnell, A. C., Hobson-Jobson. The Anglo-Indian Dictionary (London: John Murray, 1886), p. 11 Google Scholar.

24 ‘Toock’ appears to derive from the French toque, meaning little hat or beret. I wish to thank an anonymous reviewer for bringing this to my notice. The Dutch seem to have used the term to indicate a kind of turban. See Dunlop, H. (ed.), Bronnen tot de geschiedenis der Oostindische Compagnie in Perzië, Vol. I (Rijks Geschiedkundige Publicatiën, Grote Serie 72) (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1930), p. 811 Google Scholar.

25 Vink, Mission to Madurai, pp. 454, 540 (translation by Vink and myself).

26 Ibid., pp. 466, 550 (translation by Vink and myself).

27 Ibid., pp. 504–5, 576.

28 Department of National Archives, Colombo, Archives of the Dutch central government of coastal Ceylon (access no. 1), no. 3355 (unfoliated, entries of June 2 and 5): diary of the mission to Madurai representatives at Tuticorin, January–June 1711.

29 NA, VOC, no. 1941, f. 935: extract of the Tuticorin diary, June 1720 (translation mine). For pial or poyal, see Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, p. 703.

30 NA, VOC, no. 1941, ff. 919–21v, 935, 937–7v: letter from Tuticorin to Colombo, June 1720, and extract of the Tuticorin diary, June 1720.

31 For a description of the Madurai Nayaka's clothing in the 1640s by a Jesuit, mentioning a white dress, a white turban, and elaborate jewellery, see Saulière, ‘The Revolt of the Southern Nayaks’, pp. 95–6.

32 Hurpré, Jean-François, ‘The Royal Jewels of Tirumala Nayaka of Madurai (1623–1659)’, in Stronge, Susan (ed.), The Jewels of India (Bombay: Marg Publications, 1995), passim Google Scholar; Ali, Daud, Courtly Culture and Political Life in Early Medieval India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 163–7Google Scholar.

33 NA, VOC, no. 1706, f. 1045; no. 1893, f. 1048v: extract of the Tuticorin diary, July 1705, and letter from Tuticorin to Colombo, July 1717.

34 For documents concerning this mission, see NA, VOC, no. 2354, ff. 1491–632.

35 NA, VOC, no. 2320, ff. 1507–698: report concerning a conflict between the Dutch and Ikkeri, circa 1734.

36 NA, VOC, no. 2354, ff. 1541–2: diary of a mission to Ikkeri, 16 February 1735 (translation mine).

37 NA, VOC, no. 2354, ff. 1553–4, 1560–1: diary of the mission to Ikkeri, 18 and 24 February 1735.

38 NA, VOC, no. 2232, ff. 3596, 3597v: diary of the mission to Ikkeri, 19 November and 1 December 1731.

39 Valle, Pietro Della, The Travels of Pietro Della Valle in India. From the Old English Translation of 1644 by G. Havers, Grey, Edward (ed.) (London, 1892 Google Scholar; reprint New Delhi/Madras: Asian Educational Services, 1991), Vol. II, pp. 248–9.

40 For documents concerning this mission, see NA, VOC, no. 2374, ff. 2041–76v.

41 NA, VOC, no. 2374, f. 2056: diary of the mission to Ramnad, 4 November 1736 (translation mine).

42 NA, VOC, no. 2374, ff. 2058v–9, 2066–70v; diary of the mission to Ramnad, 4 and 7 November 1736.

43 For papers regarding this embassy, see NA, VOC, no. 2599, ff. 2107–62v.

44 NA, VOC, no. 2599, ff. 2135v–6: diary of the mission to Ramnad, 26 June 1743 (translation mine).

45 NA, VOC, no. 2599, f. 2152v: diary of the mission to Ramnad, 29 June 1743 (translation mine).

46 For documents concerning this mission, see NA, VOC, no. 2956, ff. 1198–269.

47 NA, VOC, no. 2956, ff. 1234v–5: diary of the mission to Ramnad, 30 June 1759 (translation mine).

48 NA, VOC, no. 2956, f. 1241v: diary of the mission to Ramnad, 1 July 1759 (translation mine).

49 The Dutch generally referred to Pathans, or Afghans in general, as ‘Patanders’, while ‘Pattanijs’ usually indicated textiles or other matters related to the town of Patna in North India. See Gommans, Bes, and Kruijtzer, Dutch Sources on South Asia, Vol. 1, pp. 398, 402. ‘Pattanijs’ might also denote cloths destined for Pattani on the Malay peninsula (for which suggestion I thank an anonymous reviewer). The diary of the Dutch mission to Ramnad, however, goes on to mention (on f. 1242) a ‘distinguished Pattanij armed with shield and sword’, sitting slightly behind and left of the Setupati. This almost certainly refers to an Afghan or at least a North Indian Muslim, for which reason I believe that the term ‘Pattanijs’ used for the Setupati's robe also has an Islamic connotation in this case. In many other sources, words like ‘Patanes’ were regularly used to denote Afghans. See Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, pp. 746–7.

50 NA, VOC, no. 2956, ff. 1259–64: diary of the mission to Ramnad, 9 July 1759.

51 For brief discussions of this question, see: Guha, Sumit, ‘The Frontiers of Memory. What the Marathas Remembered of Vijayanagara’, Modern Asian Studies, 43:1 (2009), pp. 277–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Rao, Velcheru Narayana and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, ‘Ideologies of State Building in Vijayanagara and Post-Vijayanagara South India. Some Reflections’, in Bang, Peter Fibiger and Kołodziejczyk, Dariusz (eds), Universal Empire. A Comparative Approach to Imperial Culture and Representation in Eurasian History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2012), p. 228 Google Scholar. For politico-cultural continuities and discontinuities between Tanjavur's Nayakas and Maratha Bhonsles, see for example: Subrahmanyam, Penumbral Visions, pp. 149, 162, 175; Narayana Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, pp. 314–18; Narayana Rao and Subrahmanyam, ‘Ideologies of State Building’, pp. 229–32.

52 For papers regarding this embassy, see NA, VOC, no. 2386, ff. 64–72, 163–8: proceedings of Nagapatnam, with the mission's report and correspondence inserted, November 1735.

53 NA, VOC, no. 2386, f. 165: report of the mission to Tanjavur, 10 November 1735 (translation mine). For ‘toeraaij’, see also NA, VOC, no. 2538, f. 251: proceedings of Nagapatnam, January 1741.

54 For documents concerning this embassy, see NA, VOC, no. 1329, ff. 1164v–79: instructions and report concerning the mission to Tanjavur, December 1676–January 1677.

55 NA, VOC, no. 1329, f. 1174: report of the mission to Tanjavur, 30 December 1676 (translation mine).

56 Tashrīf (mark of honour or act of honouring) is of Arabic origin, while kamar-band (waist belt) derives from Persian. See for tashrīf: Generale Missiven van Gouverneurs-Generaal en Raden, Vol. III, W.Ph. Coolhaas (ed.) (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1968), p. 100 (n. 1); Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, p. 902. See for kamar-band: van Dam, Pieter, Beschryvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie, Vol. 2.1, Stapel, F.W. (ed.) (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1931), p. 818 Google Scholar; Dunlop, Bronnen tot de geschiedenis der Oostindische Compagnie in Perzië, Vol. I, p. 797; Yule and Burnell, Hobson-Jobson, pp. 279–80.

57 Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, pp. 92–3; Nagaswamy, R., ‘Mughal Cultural Influence in the Setupati Murals of the Ramalinga Vilasam at Ramnad’, in Skelton, Robert et al. (eds), Facets of Indian Art. A Symposium Held at the Victoria and Albert Museum (New Delhi: Heritage Publishers, 1987), pp. 203–4Google Scholar.

58 Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India, pp. 220, 244, 274.

59 Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, pp. 93–5; Nagaswamy, ‘Mughal Cultural Influence’, p. 204. For reproductions of the murals showing the battle scenes, see Howes, plates 3–11 (between pp. 112–13).

60 For Dutch documents concerning this war, see NA, VOC, no. 1865, ff. 867-97v, in particular f. 878.

61 It has earlier been concluded that these paintings depict another war, supposedly fought around 1720, and thus must have been created shortly afterwards. See: Nagaswamy, ‘Mughal Cultural Influence’, p. 204; Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, pp. 93–5. But it has also been argued that the war this conclusion apparently refers to—which enthroned Muttu Vijaya Raghunatha's successor Bhavani Sankara (r. 1725–9) after the former had passed away—actually took place in 1725. Since Bhavani Sankara had already contested Muttu Vijaya Raghunatha's accession to the throne in 1710, it is unlikely he would have commissioned paintings portraying his competitor once he had finally become king himself. Moreover, having secured the throne with the help of Tanjavur, Bhavani Sankara would not have regarded this military assistance as a war with an enemy and depicted it as such in his audience hall. For similar reasons, the proposition that the two murals that include texts mentioning Muttu Vijaya Raghunatha were painted soon after his death is improbable too. For references that date the Ramnad-Tanjavur war leading to Bhavani Sankara's enthronement to 1720, see: Seshadri, ‘The Sētupatis of Ramnad’, pp. 82, 87–8; Kadhirvel, A History of the Maravas, pp. 55–9; Subramanian, The Maratha Rajas of Tanjore, p. 37. For the dating of that war to 1725, as well as Bhavani Sankara's career and Tanjavur's involvement in it, see Bes, ‘The Setupatis, the Dutch, and Other Bandits’, pp. 553–5. For translations of some Dutch documents on these events, see http://hum.leiden.edu/history/eurasia/sources/three-dutch-letters-on-an-indian-royal-career.html (accessed 24 December 2015).

62 Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 96. For reproductions of some of the murals depicting audiences, see: Howes, p. 98 and plate 12 (between pp. 112–13); Nagaswamy, ‘Mughal Cultural Influence’, p. 210 (fig. 13).

63 See Hurpré, ‘The Royal Jewels of Tirumala Nayaka’, p. 69.

64 A similar small human figure is depicted elsewhere in the Ramalinga Vilasam and is thought to represent the crown prince. See Anna Lise Seastrand, ‘Praise, Politics, and Language. South Indian Murals, 1500–1800’, PhD thesis, Columbia University, 2013, pp. 73, 300 (fig. 45), 350 (fig. 117).

65 I thank Pauline Lunsingh Scheurleer, Jennifer Howes, Phillip Wagoner, Jos Gommans, Marie Favereau, Liesbeth Geevers, and Gijs Kruijtzer for helping me identify the objects in the murals discussed here and below. Notwithstanding, I alone remain responsible for the assumptions presented here. This particular mural is also reproduced in Narayana Rao, Shulman, and Subrahmanyam, Symbols of Substance, fig. 16 (facing p. 173), where it is mentioned as representing a negotiation over a pearl fishery (the source of which is not given).

66 For pictures of turbans in Maratha Tanjavur, see for example: Appasamy, Jaya, Tanjavur Painting of the Maratha Period (New Delhi: Abhinav Publications, 1980), plate 14 (between pp. 44–5)Google Scholar; Peterson, Indira Viswanathan, ‘Portraiture at the Tanjore Maratha Court. Toward Modernity in the Early 19th Century’, in Llewellyn-Jones, Rosie (ed.), Portraits in Princely India 1700–1947 (Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2008), p. 47 Google Scholar (fig. 2); Krishna, Nanditha, Painted Manuscripts of the Sarasvati Mahal Library, T.M.S.S.M. Library Series 347 (Tanjavur: Thanjavur Maharaja Serfoji's Saravati Mahal Library, 2011), p. 11 Google Scholar (fig. 3). I also wish to thank Indira Peterson for discussing this resemblance.

67 See also Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 96.

68 Nagaswamy, ‘Mughal Cultural Influence’, pp. 208–10.

69 For Tanjavur's dominance over Ramnad in this period, see for example Bes, ‘The Setupatis, the Dutch, and Other Bandits’, p. 561.

70 Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India, p. 245.

71 Shulman, David and Subrahmanyam, Sanjay, ‘Prince of Poets and Ports. Cītakkāti, the Maraikkāyars and Ramnad, ca. 1690–1710’, in Dallapiccola, Anna Libera and Lallement, Stephanie Zingel-Avé (eds), Islam and Indian Regions, Vol. 1, Beiträge zur Südasienforschung, Südasien-Institut, Universität Heidelberg 145 (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1993), passim, in particular p. 505Google Scholar.

72 Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, pp. 96–106.

73 Nagaswamy, ‘Mughal Cultural Influence’, p. 204; Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 106 and fig. 46 (between pp. 100–1).

74 Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, Ch. 4.

75 Nagaswamy, ‘Mughal Cultural Influence’, pp. 204–7, 210; Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, pp. 102–7; and personal observation, April 2012.

76 Nagaswamy, ‘Mughal Cultural Influence’, p. 208; Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India, p. 245; Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 96.

77 Portuguese traders had been expelled from Ramnad by the Dutch around 1658, while the French probably never settled there at all, and certainly not in the years of Muttu Vijaya Raghunatha's reign. The Jesuits seem to have been restricted to a limited presence in the kingdom by the early eighteenth century too. In 1693, the Setupati Kilavan Tevar banished their order and had one of them beheaded, after their fruitful mission had made converts even within the royal family. Muttu Vijaya Raghunatha himself also grew increasingly hostile towards the Jesuits soon after his accession to the throne, making it unlikely he would have had them portrayed on the walls of his audience hall. As for possible other Europeans, the Danes, although based in neighbouring Tanjavur, never established themselves in Ramnad either and the British became involved with the kingdom only in the late 1750s. In any case, the extensive Dutch sources from Muttu Vijaya Raghunatha's period do not refer to other European activities of any significance in the kingdom, which would be unthinkable had these competitors actually tried to gain a foothold there. See: Arasaratnam, Sinnappah, ‘Commercial Policies of the Sethupathis of Ramanathapuram 1660–1690’, in Asher, R.E. (ed.), Proceedings of the Second International Conference Seminar of Tamil Studies, Vol. 2 (Madras: International Association of Tamil Research, 1968), pp. 251–2Google Scholar; Schwartzberg, Joseph E. et al., A Historical Atlas of South Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), p. 50 Google Scholar; Seshadri, ‘The Sētupatis of Ramnad’, pp. 63–9, 74–5, 83–4, 106; Kadhirvel, A History of the Maravas, pp. 39–44.

78 Bes, ‘The Setupatis, the Dutch, and Other Bandits’, pp. 550–1.

79 Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 95. The soldier has also been identified as British, which seems unlikely considering the fact the British would appear in Ramnad only several decades later. See Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India, p. 245.

80 There are many instances of requests by Ramnad and Madurai for Dutch military support and of their admiration for Dutch skills and equipment in this field. See, for example NA, VOC, no. 1324, ff. 212–2v; no. 1491, f. 596; no. 1508, ff. 214v–15; no. 1865, ff. 869–70, 879, 883, 897v; no. 1941, ff. 941–1v; no. 2374, ff. 2056–6v; no. 2599, ff. 2137–7v; no. 2956, ff. 1261–1v: correspondence, muster rolls, mission reports, and diary extracts concerning the reception of courtiers, 1677, 1691–2, 1715, 1720, 1736, 1743, 1759. See also, for instance: Vink, Mission to Madurai, pp. 215–16; Arasaratnam, ‘The Politics of Commerce’, pp. 9–10. For such requests by Tanjavur under the Bhonsles, see, for instance NA, VOC, no. 1633, f. 128; no. 2387, f. 93; no. 2764, f. 62–3: letters from Nagapatnam to Pulicat and Batavia, October 1700, September 1736, proceedings of Nagapatnam, October 1749. For an example of Ikkeri's interest in Dutch military skills, see NA, VOC, no. 2354, ff. 1545–6: diary of mission to Ikkeri, February 1735.

81 NA, VOC, no. 2015, ff. 671–2: diary of a mission to Ramnad, 22 April 1724.

82 Another factor that has been brought up to underscore the soldier's likely Dutch identity is his light hair in the painting. See Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 95. If hair colour may indeed serve as a means of identification, this would further substantiate the assumption that the European envoys depicted on the audience murals are Dutch too. In the first audience scene (Figure 2), the envoys’ hair colour is unfortunately rather nondescript or at best greyish. But the second audience scene (Figure 3) clearly portrays the Europeans with blond or reddish hair. This detail would seem to favour a Dutch background over a Portuguese or French one.

83 See NA, VOC, no. 2015, ff. 544–702.

84 NA, VOC, no. 2026, ff. 834v–5: letter from Kilakkarai to Tuticorin, April 1725.

85 NA, VOC, no. 1771, ff. 1470–595v.

86 NA, VOC, no. 1771, ff. 1451–69: instructions to the envoys for their mission to Ramnad, May 1709. For examples of such violations, see Shulman and Subrahmanyam, ‘Prince of Poets and Ports’, pp. 501–19, 534–5.

87 NA, VOC, no. 1771, ff. 1491–500v: diary of the mission to Ramnad, May–June 1709.

88 NA, VOC, no. 1771, ff. 1500v–1: diary of the mission to Ramnad, 2 June 1709 (translation mine).

89 NA, VOC, no. 1771, ff. 1480, 1529, 1531v, 1536v, 1563: report of the mission to Ramnad, July 1709, diary of the mission to Ramnad, 15, 17, and 21 June 1709, and letter from the Dutch envoys in Ramnad to Colombo, June 1709.

90 NA, VOC, no. 1771, ff. 1500v–35: diary of the mission to Ramnad, June 1709.

91 The letter combination ‘oe’ in Dutch sounds similar to letters transliterated as ‘u’ in Tamil and other Indian languages.

92 The Dutch sources are slightly confusing in this respect. They clearly declare that the son of ‘Oeria Theuver’ in all probability would succeed Kilavan Tevar, but they also state that when the latter fell seriously ill soon after the Dutch mission, ‘Oeria Theuver’ was rumoured to have been summoned to the court and nominated to ascend the throne. This seems to imply that the son of ‘Oeria Theuver’ bore the same name as his father, but it may also be that ‘Oeria Theuver’ senior was selected as the new Setupati at that particular moment. See respectively NA, VOC, no. 1771, ff. 1563 and 1536v: letter from the envoys in Ramnad to Colombo, 15 June 1709, and diary of the mission to Ramnad, 21 June 1709.

93 Seshadri, ‘The Sētupatis of Ramnad’, pp. 77–8; Kadhirvel, A History of the Maravas, p. 51; NA, VOC, no. 1788, f. 1493: letter from Tuticorin to Colombo, October 1710.

94 NA, VOC, no. 2015, f. 639: diary of the mission to Ramnad, 18 April 1724.

95 Scheurleer, Pauline Lunsingh and Kruijtzer, Gijs, ‘Camping with the Mughal Emperor. A Golkonda Artist Portrays a Dutch Ambassador in 1689’, Arts of Asia, 35:3 (2005), p. 58 Google Scholar.

96 Seastrand, ‘Praise, Politics, and Language’, p. 73; Branfoot, Crispin, ‘Royal Portrait Sculpture in the South Indian Temple’, South Asian Studies, 16:1 (2000), p. 13 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. I also thank Anna Dallapiccola and George Michell for discussing this distinction, although again I alone am responsible for the ideas presented here.

97 Branfoot, ‘Royal Portrait Sculpture in the South Indian Temple’, passim, especially p. 29.

98 Seastrand, ‘Praise, Politics, and Language’, pp. viii–ix, 114 (n. 35).

99 Deloche, Jean, A Study in Nayaka-Period Social Life. Tiruppudaimarudur Paintings and Carvings, Collection Indologie 116 (Pondicherry: Institut Francais de Pondichéry, 2011), pp. 62–4Google Scholar (figs 92, 95).

100 Deloche, A Study in Nayaka-Period Social Life, pp. 31, 33 (fig. 42).

101 Ibid., pp. 19–36 (figs 23–51).

102 Ibid., pp. 19–21.

103 Branfoot, Crispin, ‘Dynastic Genealogies, Portraiture, and the Place of the Past in Early Modern South India’, Artibus Asiae, LXXII:2 (2012), pp. 326–36, 340–4Google Scholar (figs 5–12), 353–9 (figs 22–35); Hurpré, ‘The Royal Jewels of Tirumala Nayaka’, passim, especially pp. 66, 68; Aravamuthan, T. G., Portrait Sculpture in South India (London: The India Society, 1931), pp. 48–51 (figs 25–8)Google Scholar; Heras, Henry, ‘The Statues of the Nayaks of Madura in the Pudu Mantapam’, Quarterly Journal of the Mythic Society, XV:3 (1925), passim; Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 13Google Scholar; Branfoot, ‘Royal Portrait Sculpture in the South Indian Temple’, pp. 21–2.

104 Rachel Morris, ‘Enter the Royal Encampment. Re-examining the Brooklyn Museum's Kalamkari Hanging’, Arts of Asia, 34:6 (2004), passim. See also: Mattiebelle Gittinger (with Nina Gwatkin), ‘Master Dyers to India’, in Gittinger, Master Dyers to the World, pp. 89–108; Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India, p. 255.

105 Hurpré, ‘The Royal Jewels of Tirumala Nayaka’, pp. 66 (fig. 2), 68.

106 Rajarajan, R. K. K., Art of the Vijayanagara-Nāyakas. Architecture and Iconography (Delhi: Sharada Publishing House, 2006), Vol. I, p. 147, Vol. II, pl. 22Google Scholar; Nanda, Vivek, Dallapiccola, Anna, and Michell, George, ‘The Ramasvami Temple, Kumbakonam’, South Asian Studies, 13:1 (1997), pp. 8–9 (fig. 7)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sethuraman, G., Ramesvaram Temple (History, Art and Architecture) (Madurai: J. J. Publications, 1998), pp. 190–2Google Scholar; Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 76; Aravamuthan, Portrait Sculpture in South India, pp. 51–2 (figs 29–30); T. G. Aravamuthan, South Indian Portraits in Stone and Metal (London: Luzac & Co, 1930), p. 80; Branfoot, ‘Dynastic Genealogies’, pp. 32–3 (fig. 21).

107 Swaminathan, The Nāyakas of Ikkēri, p. 238; Rajarajan, Art of the Vijayanagara-Nāyakas, Vol. I, p. 147, Vol. II, pl. 329; Chitnis, Keḷadi Polity, facing title page; Annual Report of the Mysore Archæological Department for the Year 1932 (Bangalore: Government Press, 1935), p. 48, pl. XIV, no. 2. See also Kanekar, Amita, ‘Two Temples of the Ikkeri Nayakas’, South Asian Studies, 26:2 (2010), p. 159 (n. 22)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

108 Appasamy, Tanjavur Painting of the Maratha Period, pp. 47–8, plate 14 (between pp. 44–5); Peterson, ‘Portraiture at the Tanjore Maratha Court’, p. 47 (fig. 2); Krishna, Painted Manuscripts of the Sarasvati Mahal Library, pp. 6 (fig. 2), 11 (fig. 3).

109 As for the use of jewellery at audiences of a more ‘domestic’ character, however, there seems to have been a difference between Madurai and Ramnad. While ambassador Welter wrote in his report of 1689 that the Madurai Nayaka was not wearing any jewels during their second, private meeting, the Ramnad audience mural in the Ramalinga Vilasam's back room (Figure 3) depicts the Setupati with profuse jewellery (and two weapons), even though this appears to have been an audience of a rather domestic nature as well.

110 In addition to earlier references, see: Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, pp. 13, 96; Hurpré, ‘The Royal Jewels of Tirumala Nayaka’, pp. 66–9; Michell, Architecture and Art of Southern India, p. 245. In this context, it may be noted that the small, black turbans worn by the Setupati and his courtiers in the second audience mural in the Ramalinga Vilasam (Figure 3) bear some resemblance to those used in Madurai, where they have been classified as Nayaka or specifically Madurai style. See: Howes, The Courts of Pre-Colonial South India, p. 13; Hurpré, ‘The Royal Jewels of Tirumala Nayaka’, figs 1–2, 4–8, 12–13.

111 For a reference by the Jesuit Nicolas Pimenta to similar clothing (and jewellery) worn by the Nayaka of Senji in 1599, see Sastri, K. A. Nilakanta, A History of South India. From Prehistoric Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar (4th edition, Madras: Oxford University Press, 1975), pp. 315–16Google Scholar.

112 Nagaswamy, ‘Mughal Cultural Influence’, passim; Hurpré, ‘The Royal Jewels of Tirumala Nayaka’, pp. 68–9. For reproductions of Ramalinga Vilasam murals and some Madurai temple paintings depicting rulers and courtiers in what is termed Mughal-style clothing, see: Nagaswamy, figs 1, 4, 7, 13; Hurpré, fig. 3.

113 See, for example: Swaminathan, The Nāyakas of Ikkēri, p. 68; Sathyanatha Aiyar, History of the Nayaks of Madura, pp. 204–5; Kadhirvel, A History of the Maravas, pp. 80–1, 89, 94–5; Schwartzberg, A Historical Atlas of South Asia, pp. 46, 54; Beknopte historie, pp. 87–8, 94, 96–8, 101; NA, VOC, no. 1191, f. 782v; no. 1224, f. 74; no. 1464, f. 49; no. 1546, ff. 229v–30, 245: diary of commissioner Dircq Steur's mission to Coromandel, June 1651–March 1652, report on ‘Canara’, July 1657, letters from Cochin to Gentlemen XVII and from Nagapatnam to Batavia, January 1689, May 1694. See also NA, VOC, no. 2317, f. 326: final report of Governor Adriaan Pla of Coromandel, February 1734.

114 See also Branfoot, ‘Dynastic Genealogies’, p. 335 (n. 43).