Posted on: 26 December 2013

Opaque watercolour painting on European paper of a toddy tapper and his wife. The man wears a turban and short lower garment, and holds with his left hand a Palmyra palm stem from which hang two clay pots, filled with palm juice, on his right shoulder. In his right hand he carries a knife. From his belt, a palm-leaf container hangs and an unidentified object protrudes. His wife carries a large heavy pot on her head.

Company School
1830-1835 (circa)
Tamil Nadu

© Trustees of the British Museum


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The unidentified object is the broad knife used by the toddy tappers even today, to thinly slice the palm, from which the toddy oozes out and collected in the pot.