Painting

The subject of this lightly drawn sketch is a Sikh sardar, his membership of the Khalsa (the community initiated according to the rites established by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699), evident from his uncut hair gathered into a topknot concealed beneath his white turban cloth. He wears a green pashmina Kashmir shawl of the kind popular at the court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the first Sikh ruler of the Panjab (r. 1801-1839). This portrait of an unidentified man is typical of those produced in the 1830s and 1840s in the court circle, and could have been done in one of the two major cities, Lahore or Amritsar.