A Shootr-Suwar

The title of this work is an anglicized form of the Hindi term shutur-savar, meaning "camel rider." Emily Eden sketched the original drawing for this print in the city of Patna in northern India shortly after starting her journey through that region. Because she was accompanying her brother, Lord Auckland, the Governor-General of India, on an official tour, her experiences were far from ordinary. In relating the circumstances surrounding her sketch of the camel rider, she wrote in a letter to England:

Fanny [one of Eden's sisters] and I had two very picturesque camels and camel-drivers to sketch in the morning, and the rajah to whom they belonged sent in the afternoon to beg we would accept both camels and riders. Such nice little pets. . . . However, we returned them, and I heard last night that he was quite puzzled and annoyed that we would not keep them.
—dated November 7, 1837; from Emily Eden, Up the Country: Letters Written to Her Sister from the Upper Provinces of India (1866).