Pandit Peasant Women, 1895

From British Library. Dated 1895. Photographer Unknown.

Casually explained as: ‘Photograph of two women, posed with wicker baskets on their heads, in the modern-day state of Jammu and Kashmir, taken by an unknown photographer in the 1890s. Jammu and Kashmir in a Himalayan region in north-western India famous for its lovely mountain scenery and lakes. Kashmiris work mainly on the land, producing crops and tending animals. Kashmir is also famous for its woollen textiles and the people produce fine shawls and carpets still using traditional methods going back centuries.’

Besides the fold in lower portion of their Pheran, the thing that identifies these women as Pandit is the thing that can still be used to identify old Pandit ladies living in various Indian cities, the thing dangling from their ears, Dejhoor.

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Update: From British Library, another view of the same scene. The photographers

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