Exhibit 03

Title
Nautch Girls, Kashmir

Date / Period
c. 1870 (Late Colonial Period)

Source / Author
Samuel Bourne

Location
Samuel Bourne Photographs Collection

Description of the Source
This albumen print by British photographer Samuel Bourne depicts a group of nautch girls from Kashmir during the late nineteenth century. Arranged within a studio setting and posed alongside decorative objects, the performers are presented through the visual conventions of colonial photography, which often transformed cultural subjects into ethnographic and aesthetic spectacles. While the image records aspects of dress, adornment, and performance culture, it also reflects the ways in which colonial photography framed hereditary performers for imperial audiences, shaping visual perceptions of nautch traditions in South Asia.

Title
Nautch Girl with Musicians, Calcutta

Date / Period
c. 1900 (Late Colonial Period)

Source / Author
Frederic Courtland Penfield

Location
Published in East of Suez: Ceylon, India, China and Japan (1907). Retrieved from Project Gutenberg.

Description of the Source
This photograph depicts a nautch dancer, or tawaif, posed alongside accompanying musicians in Calcutta during the late colonial period. The image highlights the collaborative nature of performance traditions, in which dancers worked closely with instrumentalists and vocalists to create sophisticated artistic presentations. Produced for a Western readership, the photograph reflects colonial interest in South Asian performance cultures while documenting aspects of the professional world of hereditary performers. It also serves as a reminder of the important cultural role played by tawaifs as patrons, artists, and custodians of music and dance traditions in colonial India.

Keywords
Tawaif · Nautch · Calcutta · Musicians · Hindustani Music · Performance Traditions · Colonial India · Visual Culture

Reference / Citation
Penfield, Frederic Courtland. East of Suez: Ceylon, India, China and Japan. New York: The Century Co., 1907. Retrieved from Project Gutenberg.

Title
Nautch Dancers in Old Delhi

Date / Period
c. 1874 (Colonial Period)

Source / Author
Samuel Bourne

Location
Retrieved from Columbia University Digital South Asia Resources

Description of the Source
This photograph by Samuel Bourne depicts a group of nautch dancers in Old Delhi during the late nineteenth century. Produced during the expansion of colonial photography in India, the image forms part of a broader visual record through which British photographers documented people, occupations, and cultural practices across the subcontinent. While the photograph preserves details of dress, adornment, and performance communities, it also reflects the colonial tendency to frame performers as ethnographic subjects. As a visual source, it offers insight into the public presence of hereditary dancers and the ways in which nautch traditions were represented during the colonial period.

Keywords
Nautch · Delhi · Colonial Photography · Hereditary Performers · Dance History · Visual Culture · Samuel Bourne · Colonial India

Reference / Citation
Bourne, Samuel. Nautch Dancers in Old Delhi, c. 1874. Retrieved from Columbia University Digital South Asia Resources.

Title
Gauhar Jaan

Date / Period
Late 19th to Early 20th Century

Source / Author
Unknown

Location
Retrieved from Wikipedia

Description of the Source
This portrait depicts Gauhar Jaan (1873–1930), one of the most celebrated singers and performers of early twentieth-century India. Renowned for her contributions to Hindustani music and for being among the first Indian artists to record commercially on gramophone discs, Gauhar Jaan occupies a significant place in the history of performance and sound recording. The image reflects the public visibility and cultural prominence achieved by elite courtesan-performers during the late colonial period, offering insight into the intersection of performance, celebrity, and modern media in South Asia.

Keywords
Gauhar Jaan · Courtesan Culture · Hindustani Music · Gramophone Recordings · Female Performers · Music History · Colonial India

Reference / Citation
Portrait of Gauhar Jaan, photographer unknown, late nineteenth or early twentieth century. Retrieved from Wikipedia.

Title
Nautch Girl Performing in Delhi

Date / Period
1862 (Colonial Period)

Source / Author
Attributed to Charles Shepherd

Location
Source location unknown

Description of the Source
This photograph depicts a nautch performer in Delhi accompanied by two male musicians, one playing a string instrument and the other a drum. Produced during the early decades of photography in colonial India, the image documents the collaborative nature of performance traditions in which dancers, vocalists, and instrumentalists worked together within courtly and entertainment settings. As a colonial-era photograph, it reflects contemporary European interest in recording Indian social and cultural life while also preserving a visual record of performers associated with the nautch tradition during the nineteenth century.

Keywords
Nautch · Delhi · Colonial Photography · Musicians · Performance Traditions · Dance History · Visual Culture · Colonial India

Reference / Citation
Attributed to Charles Shepherd. Nautch Girl Performing in Delhi, 1862.

Title
Sketch of Two Nautch Girls

Date / Period
c. 1880s (Colonial Period)

Source / Author
Edwin Lord Weeks

Location
Private Collection

Description of the Source
This painting by American Orientalist artist Edwin Lord Weeks depicts two nautch girls, or professional female performers, in late nineteenth-century India. Created during Weeks' travels across South Asia, the work reflects the Orientalist fascination with Indian subjects that characterized much Western artistic production of the period. Through its attention to costume, ornamentation, and atmosphere, the painting presents performers as aesthetically captivating figures while also revealing how colonial-era artists interpreted and represented Indian cultural life for international audiences. The work serves as an important example of the visual construction of nautch performers within nineteenth-century Orientalist art.

Keywords
Nautch · Orientalism · Edwin Lord Weeks · Female Performers · Colonial Art · Visual Culture · Dance History · South Asia

Reference / Citation
Weeks, Edwin Lord. Sketch of Two Nautch Girls, c. 1880s. Oil on canvas. Private Collection.

Title
Nautch Dancers and Musicians

Date / Period
c. 1870s (Colonial Period)

Source / Author
Attributed to Samuel Bourne

Location
Source location unknown

Description of the Source
This studio portrait depicts a group of nautch dancers accompanied by their musicians in late nineteenth-century India. Arranged as a formal "nautch party," the image includes performers alongside traditional instruments associated with North Indian music and dance traditions. Produced during the height of colonial photography, the photograph reflects both an interest in documenting Indian cultural practices and the conventions of studio portraiture that shaped how performers were represented. As a visual source, it offers insight into the ensemble nature of nautch performances and preserves details of dress, instrumentation, and performance culture during the colonial period.

Keywords
Nautch · Musicians · Studio Photography · Colonial India · Sarangi · Tabla · Performance Traditions · Visual Culture

Reference / Citation
Attributed to Samuel Bourne. Nautch Dancers and Musicians, c. 1870s.

Title
Nautch Girl, or Dancing Girl

Date / Period
1828 (Early Colonial Period)

Source / Author
Unknown Artist; Published in Asiatic Costumes by Ackermann

Location
Published in London

Description of the Source
This hand-colored copperplate engraving depicts a nautch girl, or professional dancer, dressed in embroidered silks and muslins and adorned with jewelry characteristic of elite performance culture in nineteenth-century India. Published in Asiatic Costumes for a British audience, the print forms part of a broader tradition of illustrated costume studies that sought to catalogue the peoples, occupations, and customs of the colonial world. While emphasizing dress and ornamentation, the image also reflects European visual conventions and colonial curiosity about Indian performers, offering insight into how nautch dancers were represented and consumed within imperial print culture.

Keywords
Nautch · Costume Studies · Colonial Print Culture · Dancing Girl · Visual Representation · Orientalism · Early Colonial India · Dress and Adornment

Reference / Citation
Nautch Girl, or Dancing Girl. Hand-colored copperplate engraving. Published in Asiatic Costumes. London: Ackermann, 1828.

Title
Nautch Girls, Hyderabad

Date / Period
c. 1860s (Colonial Period)

Source / Author
Hooper and Western

Location
Source location unknown

Description of the Source
This photograph depicts two nautch girls in Hyderabad resting within an ornate interior setting during the nineteenth century. Produced by the photographic firm Hooper and Western, the image reflects colonial interest in documenting performers and social types across India. Nautch performers were highly trained artists who participated in weddings, courtly entertainments, and public celebrations, often working alongside musicians as part of professional performance troupes. While the photograph records aspects of dress and presentation, it also reveals how colonial photography contributed to shaping visual perceptions of hereditary performers during a period of significant social and cultural change.

Keywords
Nautch · Hyderabad · Colonial Photography · Female Performers · Dance History · Performance Traditions · Visual Culture · Colonial India

Reference / Citation
Hooper and Western. Nautch Girls, Hyderabad, c. 1860s.