A View of Shekoabad

One wonders at the thought process that must have guided artists like William Hodges—coming from far-away England to a hitherto unknown land called India at a time when such travels were by no means common or doable by a majority—in choosing to sketch a particular vista, especially when faced with a plethora of options in a place as huge as the Indian subcontinent. What is it about this view of ‘Shekoabad’ (perhaps, Shikohabad in present Uttar Pradesh) that Hodges devoted a beautiful etching to? Perhaps, the fragment of a ruin in the middle of virginal landscape, perhaps the vastness of the plain, perhaps its ordinariness…