69 V I L L A G E R S AT R A N I A
INDIA (HARYANA, RANIA), CIRCA 1816 HEIGHT: 30 CM WIDTH: 41.7 CM
Opaque watercolour on paper. Numbered “107” to the upper right; numbered and inscribed on the reverse in French “107 famille Princiere” and further inscribed in an Urdu hand. This painting is an important new discovery and addition to the celebrated group of Company School pictures made for William and James Baillie Fraser. The artist who executed this portrait group can be identified as one of the master artists working for William Fraser. Though the painting does not have an attached cover sheet inscribed with the names of the figures, as do many of the Fraser pictures, all the villagers can be identified by comparison with figure groups illustrated in Mildred Archer and Toby Falk, India Revealed: The art and adventures of James and William Fraser 1801-1835, 1989.
Archer and Falk describe on pp. 16-18 how William Fraser was deeply steeped in the ways, manners, languages and customs of India. He lived in a semi-Indian style, sporting a full beard at a time when most British were clean-shaven. He frequently wore complete native dress and became a vegetarian. Living far way from Calcutta, William was untrammelled by the rules and conventions of settled areas. Amongst the many places he visited during the course of his settlement work in the areas surrounding Delhi, Rania was a village that held a special charm for William. His ever-increasing knowledge of Indian customs and languages allowed him to assimilate easily with the people he encountered. In moving from village to village, assessing potential land revenue in the areas outlying Delhi, Fraser developed friendships with the natives.
Two paintings in particular contain all the figures of our painting, seen in similar poses but in different combinations with other villagers. These are “Salabat Bhatti and villagers at Rania”, on p. 101, pl. 75; and “Six villagers standing on a hillside”, on p. 109, pl. 95. The figures are identified by inscriptions in Persian and in William’s hand. Based on these inscriptions, the figures from left to right are as follows: Soojah [Muja], Rajpoot Bhutee son of Nijabut Khan, [Lambardar, resident of] Ranneah Hazir Khan, brother of Soojah [Muja], Rajpoot Amiban, Rajput [of the] tribe Makhokhar [Khokhar], inhabitant of Bhatrani, sister-in-law of Khwaju Soha Khajoo allee [Bhatee] Lumburdar, commonly called Soha Mojumee [resident of] Ranneah
Although he reputedly had several wives and numerous children, his favourite amongst them was a woman named Amiban, resident of Rania, who became his bibi. She is the graceful figure at the centre of this painting. Amiban is portrayed in several Fraser pictures. Archer and Falk illustrate on p. 18, fig. 8, a delightful painting of Amiban wearing the same clothes as in our picture and standing in an almost identical pose, with her left hand coyly lifting her veil aside
to reveal her beautiful face. The inscription tells us that Amiban is “A Jat woman, the chosen one of Fraser Sahib, whose delicate beauty was beyond compare”. She appears again in “Salabat Bhatti and villagers at Rania”, now in the David Collection in Copenhagen. The young boy who stands beside Amiban and who is identified as Hazir Khan, may be one of William’s children by Amiban. In the catalogue of the exhibition at the Asia Society Museum, New York, by William Dalrymple and Yuthika Sharma (eds.), Princes and Painters in Mughal Delhi, 1707-1857, 2012, pp. 124-125, cat. no. 43, Sharma suggests that the real name of the boy may be Charles Fraser, William’s eldest son. His identification as Hazir Khan could well be Fraser’s attempt to hide his son’s identity from his family in Scotland. Sharma and Dalrymple quote a moving letter written by Major William Brown to James Fraser in 1843, indicating that after Fraser’s assassination in 1835, the care of his progeny in India was entrusted to friends. Major Brown writes that he knows Charles Fraser intimately and “is exceedingly lucky in being able to speak very highly of him”, adding that “he is tolerably well off in the custom department and I hope it will not be very long ere he is promoted.”
Provenance: William and James Baillie Fraser
Mewah [Jeewah], Rajpoot, Mundewal, [resident of Rania] related to Nijabat Khan [Lambardar]
Private French Collection