Anand Masih and the Raja of Nahan and his sons

This image was based upon original sketches by Emily Eden (1797–1869), an amateur artist who spent six years in India (1836–1842) . The elderly man depicted at left is identified by an inscription on the reverse as "Anund Musseeh." He was described by Eden as a convert to Christianity who, at the time of her original sketch, worked as a preacher in a small town in what is now Himachal Pradesh state. The artist sketched the Raja of Nahan and his sons when they presented themselves at the British camp with which she traveled.

Eden traveled to India with her brother, George Eden, the Earl of Auckland, when he was appointed to the position of governorgeneral of India. In 1837, accompanied by a huge retinue, he embarked on a 2½-year tour of India's northern provinces. Emily Eden was fortunate to be traveling in her brother's company. She experienced first-hand the dazzle of royal Indian courts and the great diversity of India's population, much of which she conveyed in her sketches. Shortly after her return to England, a portfolio of prints based upon her drawings—from which the images shown here come—was published under the title Portraits of the Princes and People of India.