For the month of October, Auckland Libraries is celebrating the festival of Diwali.
Diwali is a festival of lights, and is one of the most popular of festivals in Hinduism. It is celebrated every autumn in the northern hemisphere and in spring here in the southern hemisphere, and symbolises the spiritual victory of light over darkness, good over evil and knowledge over ignorance.
In this Real Gold episode Sue Berman talks with Elspeth Orwin about a selection of travel books from Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections which offer a unique 17th and late 18th/19th century perspective of India and Indian culture.
On the wall in the Reading Room, and illustrated with this episode is a digital copy of one of the many prints by Francois Balthazar Solvyns from his four column Les Hindous - The Hindus. The plate Elephants and Camels is from volume three of Les Hindoûs. Solvyn, a Flemish artist, lived in Calcutta from 1791 to 1803 where he undertook a visual account of Hindu life and customs.
It was not until the late 1980s that his prints were recognised as a compelling portrait of India two hundred years ago.
https://discover.aucklandlibraries.govt.nz/iii/encore/record/C__Rb1968996
Book References:
Francois Bernier. Travels in the Mogul Empire, A.D. 1656-1688. Archibald Constable, 1891. Rev. and improved ed. based upon Irving Brock's translation / by Archibald Constable.
https://tinyurl.com/y2o32n87
William Hodges. Travels in India during the years 1780, 1781, 1782 & 1783. Printed for the author and sold by J. Edwards, Pall-Mall, 1793
https://tinyurl.com/y48lhu8d
Nina Elizabeth Mazuchelli. The Indian Alps and how we crossed them: being a narrative of two years' residence in the eastern Himalaya and two months' tour into the interior / by a lady pioneer, illustrated by herself. Longmans, Green and Co. 1876
https://tinyurl.com/yyhbrfl9
