Lot Essay
Kattalam is in the far south of the peninsula, in Tirunelveli district. Here is one of the number of waterfalls, which include Papanasum and Vannar Thurthum (lot 72), visited by the Daniells in July and August 1792, on their way down to Kanya Kumari (Cape Comorin). Such places were also visited and venerated by Hindus: these great natural features are also pilgrimage sites, and through the trees on the right here, we can glimpse a choultry, or pilgrim's shelter.
'The Waterfall at Courtallam, called Tancanche, about twenty miles northward from the Cataract of Puppanassum, is also accounted by the Hindoos a place of peculiar sanctity. On certain festivals the number of people that resort to this spot from every part of India, is almost incredible; and to accommodate so great a concourse of religious persons numerous choultries are provided. Some of the buildings of that description appear in this view; the others (sometimes connected with pagodas) are scattered about the valley in different situations; and the grandeur and religious solemnity of the scene is much heightened by a grove of large spreading trees, two or three miles in extent, beneath which is the general pathway leading to the great object of their devotion.'
'Besides those who frequent the falls of Tancanche and Puppanassum simply for the purpose of devotion, many also repair thither in order to procure the sacred water, which they carry about in small bottles carefully packed up in curious baskets; these, attached to each end of a bamboo, they bear on their shoulders and travel many hundred miles through the country, occasionally distributing, at the principal Hindoo temples in their route, small portions of this holy fluid, whereby they insure to themselves whatever food and accommodation they may require.'
'The height of the cataract of Courtallam is two hundred and twenty feet' (Oriental Scenery).
This watercolour was the basis for the aquatint Oriental Scenery, vol.IV, no.3 (published 1 January 1804). In 1796, Thomas made an oil painting of the same composition (now in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta; see Shellim, 1979, TD33). A later oil painting by Thomas is a different rendering of the same subject (see Shellim, 1988, TD63A). For other drawings of Kattalam by the Daniells, see Archer, 1968, pp.20-23.
'The Waterfall at Courtallam, called Tancanche, about twenty miles northward from the Cataract of Puppanassum, is also accounted by the Hindoos a place of peculiar sanctity. On certain festivals the number of people that resort to this spot from every part of India, is almost incredible; and to accommodate so great a concourse of religious persons numerous choultries are provided. Some of the buildings of that description appear in this view; the others (sometimes connected with pagodas) are scattered about the valley in different situations; and the grandeur and religious solemnity of the scene is much heightened by a grove of large spreading trees, two or three miles in extent, beneath which is the general pathway leading to the great object of their devotion.'
'Besides those who frequent the falls of Tancanche and Puppanassum simply for the purpose of devotion, many also repair thither in order to procure the sacred water, which they carry about in small bottles carefully packed up in curious baskets; these, attached to each end of a bamboo, they bear on their shoulders and travel many hundred miles through the country, occasionally distributing, at the principal Hindoo temples in their route, small portions of this holy fluid, whereby they insure to themselves whatever food and accommodation they may require.'
'The height of the cataract of Courtallam is two hundred and twenty feet' (Oriental Scenery).
This watercolour was the basis for the aquatint Oriental Scenery, vol.IV, no.3 (published 1 January 1804). In 1796, Thomas made an oil painting of the same composition (now in the Victoria Memorial Hall, Calcutta; see Shellim, 1979, TD33). A later oil painting by Thomas is a different rendering of the same subject (see Shellim, 1988, TD63A). For other drawings of Kattalam by the Daniells, see Archer, 1968, pp.20-23.