Sykes (Sikhs)

Francois Baltazard Solvyns was a Flemish marine painter who published an ethnographic typology of ‘Hindoos’ and their way of life in 250 coloured etchings. Published in 1796 as ‘Two Hundred and Fifty Coloured Etchings: Descriptive of the Manners, Customs and Dresses of the Hindoos,’ this project was designed in ‘socially descending sections,’ spanning across caste and community groups and documenting their costumes, rituals and musical instruments, among other details. Despite being a financial failure, this manner of cataloguing the diversity of people in the colonies became a prototype for painters later hired by the East India Company to maintain a visual record of the people of India. This etching depicts some of the symbols of membership in the Khalsa (the ‘order of the Pure’), founded in 1699 by Guru Gobind Singh: namely, hair, a steel bracelet, and short breeches. The dark blue colour of the cloak may indicate that the figure belonged to the martial, Nihang sect of the community.