India / Burma / Myanmar: 'A Manipuri Horseman' in the service of Burma's Konbaung Dynasty. Colewsorthy Grant, 1855

Watercolour with pen and ink of a Manipuri horseman (Kathe). The horseman in this portrait came from Manipur in the northeast of India and was known by the Burmese as Kathé. In 1826, Manipur became a state within the British Raj.

Colesworthy Grant was unimpressed with the Burmese cavalry. He wrote that 'If the Infantry of the Burmese army disappointed expectation, the mounted portion yet more...for although there were many beautifully formed, powerful, and spirited [horses], very many more were of sorry appearance, as though of inferior blood, or badly fed. The men, believed to be principally or exclusively Munnipooreans, were strong enough looking, but miserably set off by their dress and equipments. Their clothes were of the same coarse quality as those of the foot soldiers, and their arms consisted of a short spear, and the customary sword slung at their backs'.

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Supplier: CPA Media Co. Ltd.

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Pictures From History