Print of woodcut engraving titled „Cipayes du Bengale“

Artist unknown.

Engraved by unknown.

From „L‘univers illustre. Journal hebdomadaire“, Paris. Aux bureaux d‘abonnement, 13, rue Bonaparte en face du palais Beaux – Arts et a la librairie de Michel Levy Freres. Rue Vivienne, 25 Bis. Paris. 1858.

A sepoy was formerly the designation given to an Indian soldier. In the modern Nepalese Army, Indian Army, Pakistan Army and Bangladesh Army it remains in use for the rank of private soldier.

Bengal is a geographical and ethno-linguistic region in the eastern part of the South Asian subcontinent, at the apex of the Bay of Bengal and dominated by the fertile Ganges delta. The Bengal region was politically divided in the 1905 by then the British Governor General Lord Curzon based on religion: predominantly Hindu West Bengal and Muslim East Bengal until its reunification back in 1912. In 1947 Bengal again was partitioned into two political entities. The western part became a province of India (now a state of India by the name of West Bengal), while predominantly Muslim East Bengal part became a province of Pakistan. East Pakistan again on 26th March, 1971 gained independence as People's Republic of Bangladesh. Some regions of the historical kingdoms of Bengal are now part of the neighbouring Indian states of Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha. The Bengali people who speak the Bengali language which is Indo-Aryan, natively inhabit the region, alongside dozens of indigenous ethnic groups who speak minority languages of the Tibeto-Burman, Austroasiatic, and Dravidian families.

Approx. image size 34, 5 x 23, 5/37, 7 x 26, 7 cm.Condition: good.

Condition: good.