Maharaja Dhiraj Singh watches a nautch

Gouache with gold on paper.

His duties for the day over, Dhiraj Singh enjoys a nautch or dance performance on a palace terrace. The dark-skinned nautch girl half-kneels in a kathak dance pose, her hands raised with thumb and finger joined in an expressive gesture. Verging into the picture border, her companion with cymbals and a pakhavaj drummer beat out the rapid rhythms of the dance.

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