- Title
- Betel Box with Karttikeya on his Peacock Mount (top) and a European on Horseback (bottom)
- Date Made
- circa 1800-50
- Medium
- Parcel-gilt silver, chased
- Dimensions
- 1 1/4 × 2 3/4 × 3 1/2 in. (3.18 × 6.99 × 8.89 cm)
- Accession Number
- M.2013.220.17
- Collecting Area
- South and Southeast Asian Art
- Curatorial Notes
This octagonal betel box has pierced floral designs on the sides, suggesting that it was meant to store betel leaves that were kept fresh by the air circulation.
The top of the box is adorned with an incised line drawing of the Hindu deity Karttikeya on his peacock mount beside an oversize flowering plant. Karttikeya has four arms and holds a manuscript inscribed "Rām Nam" in devanagari script in his upper left hand, a musical instrument in his lower left, a rosary in his lower right, and a betel quid (?) in his upper right hand. Standing in front of Karttikeya is a male worshipper with his hands joined in a gesture of reverence. He wears jewelry and a style of turban with a curved and pointed tall crest that was popular in the Mewar court in the first half of the 19th century, which suggests he may be intended as a royal or noble personage.
The bottom of the box is embellished with a European man on horseback, who is framed by oversize flowering plants. The gentleman wears a wide-brimmed hat and a ruffled cloak. Around his waist he wears a broad, slightly curved sword, perhaps intended as a talwar sword antake h hilt. Europeans (called Firangis or Franks) were often depicted in Indian paintings and decorative art of the later 16th through 19th centuries, often as stereotypes and stock motifs of the foppish outlanders.
Related betel boxes with figural imagery are in the British Museum (1878,1230.755) and the Victoria and Albert Museum (IS.02685).