Experience Tranquility: Dean Mohamet’s Portrayal of Rural India

Christopher Banda-Farrar 

Throughout Dean Mohamet’s travels of India, he makes constant references to the lush, green-ness of India and, despite the circumstances, the pleasure he took in passing through these types of environments. More specifically, looking at letter VI when his company is running through a series of Indian settlements through the Chrimnasa plains, he describes the exotic overshadowing trees bearing different types of fruit and various places for rest. “As the weather was very warm, we advanced slowly, and found it exceedingly pleasant to travel along the roads shaded with the spreading branches of fruit-bearing trees, bending under their luscious burthens of bananas, mangoes, and tamarinds. Beneath the trees, were many cool springs and wells of the finest water in the universe, with which the whole country of Indostan abound”. He seems to also make a point that those inhabiting this rural area utilize these sources of refreshment well, essentially suggesting that this is not just one specific place in India bearing this kind of “fruitful” environment. The beautiful, bountiful plains of India being a source of comfort for Dean Mohamet is touched on various times throughout the reading so much that he makes it sound like a sort of paradise in a way. Having camped alongside the Ganges, he describes his experience as a state of tranquility, not a word that he would use lightly. Being in such a place overcome with green essence and this place obviously containing inhabitants of their own, he doesn’t seem to have much of a care for them either since there is apparently no need to compete for sustenance and such. It is almost literally as if the land he is in is symbolism for “there is enough to go around”, he doesn’t have to concern himself with conflict. 

Personally, I found his description to be strikingly similar to Coaduwar Gaut.” Plate 14 in Twenty Four Landscapes. The overbearing descriptions Mohamet gives of lush plains with low hanging trees on hills with enough refreshment for every traveler that passes through seems to hit right on the nose with this painting. At least for me the piece appears to be the very thing Dean Mohamet is describing and is trying to give us the feel for India, pure tranquility and satisfaction without having to identify with worldly concerns or competitiveness. Those engaging themselves with this lend live by it, it almost feels like the portrayal of India here is describing it as a world of its own and that is something I identify in the painting above as well. Its almost too perfect to miss the correlation between these two.

A Moment of Reprieve in Nature by Luis Mendez

Does one really have the time to take a breather in the army? Dean Mahomet answers this question with an interesting response. His fifth letter contains a section where he details how his army has set up camp and how that process works. Interesting enough is how he frames the process as very laborious and intricate. How can this be seen as peaceful? It’s best to use a different perspective in order to understand what he is trying to imply. Take a painting produced by Thomas & William Daniell called Coaduwar Gaut. This painting automatically allures the viewer with the vast amount of towering trees. Going back to the story, Mahomet dedicates the majority of his story to how the army sets up camp, but there’s one interesting detail. The following line contrasts the rest of this letter: “We enjoyed a pleasant cool breeze the entire day; while the trees, ever-blooming and overshadowing the road, afforded a friendly shelter and an agreeable view along with the country.” It’s this single sentence that matches up with the painting. Mahomet mentions how enjoyable being in the tree’s shade is which is seen in the painting. A large group of people sits under one. Yet in the painting, we see some sents which could be an analogy for the tents the army sets up. However, what would be the purpose of this? This creates an implication in Mahomet’s description. He dedicates so much of the letter to explaining how they have their community set up. Yet, he doesn’t dedicate any time to describing the nature around them. Even when he does, it’s just to emphasize another man-made building like the hospital. It makes it seem like he gave up on nature. Yet the painting shows people enjoying nature. Sure there are some buildings but they are not the emphasis. They are in the background and yet we don’t see anyone there. The people are enjoying themselves under the shade of the tree. This implies that Mahomet is ignorant of the nature around him and only focuses on the society that he and the army has. Why is this important? Remember how he says he enjoyed the weather and the shade under the tree? It is implying that he missed the forest for the trees. He can see happiness in nature, yet he doesn’t embrace it. The painting is telling him to take a breather because so much work can be tiring. And thus, this is what the painting implies about his ignorance of the natural world around him.

Picturing Imperial Landscapes

For this Thursday (3/31), students will select a specific section from S. D. Mahomet’s travels, letters I-XX (pages 31-88) for close reading in order to answer the following question:

Which ONE painting by Thomas and William Daniell is most suitable for understanding Mahomet’s description of India?

In answering this question, use one of the four paintings (shown below) as a lens for interpreting Mahomet’s text. Consider how Mahomet confirms, contradicts, refutes, or qualifies the message implicit in the painting. Please copy and paste the selected image in your blog post.

The posts are due by next Thursday (3/31) 8:30am. Please categorize under “Indian English” and create specific and relevant tags that directly reflect the main themes and ideas raised in your post.  And please write your full name.

Note: The Travels of Dean Mahomet are accessible as an ebook in the UCM library. Be sure to log on to your VPN if accessing the library off campus.

Four Daniell paintings:

View Taken on the Esplanade, Calcutta
, plate I from ‘Oriental Scenery’, published 1797

“Coaduwar Gaut.” Plate 14 in Twenty Four Landscapes. Views in Hindoostan. Drawn and engraved by Thomas & William Daniell.  London, 1807.

Near Currah, on the River Ganges, T. Daniell, Oriental scenery …[1st series], London
1795[-97], pl.XXI

Destroying the Landscape of India (War)

Dean Mahomet criticizes war through his prose descriptions of war-torn India, marking the serenity cities and places have prior to war, and the destruction and sadness they feel following war. Mahomet’s short elegy, the apostrophe to “destructive war” in which he describes the atrocities of war and their repercussions on the people they effect is subtly remarked about even before the apostrophe occurs in the text. Mahomet details his march through several cities, marking their “salubrious air, fascinating landscapes, and innocence of its inhabitants” (79), the delightful country and climate of Alahabad (85), and Oude, the “place of constant resort” (88). He uses positive imagery to highlight the beauty and peacefulness of India before the ravages of war, something that is made evident by the immediate atrocities that befall Mahomet and his regiment post-eden description. Mahomet notes in the very next letter how his army engaged with another and after several had been slain, his general returned with a prisoner, raped her, killed her, and then died himself from festering wounds (90). This marks a turn in Mahomet’s novel; his landscapes of a serene India become scarcer and scarcer, and Mahomet remarks that in writing about the landscapes and events that happen before him are “such an awful scene forms a subject for the pencil of the most sublime artists” (113). Mahomet contrasts the beauty and peace of India pre-war with the “desolation” and “ruffian violence” (123) to critique war and its effects on the landscape of India. War destroys the landscape of India, wasting it with a ruthless hand.

There is Chaos in War

War is considered to be a destructive mechanism. This open warfare mechanism is an invitation to a period of revolution and, synonymously, chaos.  This is due to the negative impacts it has on the soldiers involved, the civilians that are observing, and the land that is mutilated.

There is much trauma that rises from warfare. The way I see it, there is much trauma to be observed from the people involved: the victims, and the offenders. The victims – those who come out wounded, tortured, raped, a witness to awful moments. And the offenders – the torturers, the rapists, the ones that inflict the pain making awful moments. In the novel The Travels of Dean Mahomet the narrator recounts his travels through territories as an officer in the British East’s army. Sake Dean Mohamet expresses a series of observations for why war leads “whole Empires to the grave.”

Dean Mohamet notes in his narrative the grand burial of “the gallant Captain Gravely” in chapter XX. It was just a few short lines at the end of the chapter, though I feel as if it captured what the good Dean meant by his thoughtful observation of war leading Empires to the grave. The narration goes as follows:

“Seapoys were killed.”

Captain Gravely was killed.

The Captain had a rather graceful funeral.

And the town of Lecknow is then considered.

And then the “military force” is thrust in the readers face.

During this consideration, the town is painted to be thriving and full of life. When I closed my eyes and pictured the town of Lecknow, figures were dancing, a market was found along the streets, industrial buildings and companies flourished. Somewhere the militia of sorts comes casually strolling through the town with their weapons of choice, “fire-locks, bows and arrows, spears, daggers, swords, and shields.” This scene effectively reflects the beauty of a well developed Empire, and then promptly reflects the invasive nature that is war. When the militia invades, there are expectations of war. And when war occurs, chaos is born. After the dust clears up, a soldier can look around, and the once beautiful Empire is no longer recognizable.