Gouhar’s jewels
In the Sarmaya archive, a
(visiting card-style photo) by photographer Daroga Abbas Ali has been identified as Gouhar, a courtesan from Lucknow. Dating back to 1874, it shows her dressed in an Awadhi
What is particularly interesting is that the embroidery has been done to mimic the a woven silk brocade from Benares that is made of diagonal stripes of colour filled with created by the use of an extra weft. It is paired with a
which is the length of a modern-day sari. Her jacket is in
gold brocade woven to look like a sheet of metal. She wears a
as well as a or a waterfall-like ornament worn on the left side of the head, popularised by the Mughals. Her earrings seem to be
with big Basra pearl loops and among her many necklaces is the traditional or choker made with uncut diamonds and emeralds. covers around the world. Frederick William Gaisberg, an engineer with Gramophone and Typewriter Ltd, notes in his memoirs that Jaan arrived to record her songs wearing the nest outts, and she never repeated her jewels.
Inspiring Sanjay Leela Bhansali
In the 19th century, courtesans from the subcontinent had the cultural cache of movie stars, in§uencing fashion, style, and even politics. Dutch exotic dancer and alleged war spy, Mata Hari, fabricated a past in which she was born an Indian princess. In her gem-encrusted head dresses and sari-like drapes, she clearly took inspiration from the South Asian courtesan.
In Veena Talwar Oldenburg’s 1990 paper, Lifestyle as Resistance: The Case of the Courtesans of Lucknow, the author cites civic tax records from 1858-77 to reveal that the tawaifs were, in fact, the largest and highest tax paying class, with “the largest individual earnings of anyone within the city”.
By the 1940s, the courtesans’ glory days had come to an end, but their legacy continues to inspire designers and artists — and most recently, director Sanjay Leela Bhansali. His upcoming Net§ix period drama, Heeramandi, will take viewers behind the storied walls of a Lahore tawaif-khaana, as the freedom struggle gathers momentum in the subcontinent.
On April 26, the writer will give a lecture on courtesans as part of Sarmaya Talks. At Joss, Mumbai, at 6 p.m.
The fourth in a series of columns by sarmaya.in, a digital archive of India’s diverse histories and artistic traditions.