Porteurs de Rouannys, caste

This image of Rawani bearers, Porteurs de Rouannys, a caste, seems to depict them as reasonably well off in comparison to the other professionals featured in F. B. Solvyns’s Les Hindous, an encyclopaedic depiction of the people of eastern India at the end of the eighteenth century. This etching from the first of four volumes shows a member of the caste standing in front of his hut without the signs of depredation that mark some other menial workers.