A View of a Mosque, at Mounheer

It’s almost as if an Englishman named William Hodges has lifted a heavy curtain off an east-facing window and is surprised at this arresting vista of a land very far from England where he belongs. What he sees beyond the curtain are strikingly rich elements of a civilization heard of but unseen in the well-heeled salons of London. Hodges makes a drawing of it for patrons back home, showing dense tropical vegetation amidst which are nestled places of worship such as this mosque at what he calls ‘Mounheer’, perhaps in present-day Uttar Pradesh or Bihar.