Gouallahs

‘While the Gouallah is tending his cows, he preserves everywhere the same attitude, leaning on a little stick, with a chattah or umbrella in his hand,’ observed F. B. Solvyns in his monumental Les Hindous, published in four volumes in Paris in the early nineteenth century. The Flemish artist had spent considerable time in the previous century documenting the people and professions in eastern India.