Lady Wearing a Turban

Most Pahari painters representing portraits of Mughal princesses tend to feature the women as wearing turbans. The fashion may not have been widespread but it did exist and was mainly sported by princesses and royal ladies who seem to have taken to wearing a headdress like a man's turban.

There is a sumptuousness about her appearance that is difficult to miss; the noble and soft features, the finely tied turban, and the transparent muslin peshvaz. The artist has painted her having a charming oval face with excellent features including an ample forehead and large brown eyes. Her arms and hands are slender and the palms are dyed red. Tresses of her luxuriant black hair are well kept under the turban but flow without holds over her shoulder and back. The artist has certainly added his imaginary touches, presenting her as a paragon of beauty. She wears a sleeved peshvaz which is so transparent that the body appears like nude under it revealing its mysterious charm. She is adorned with turban ornaments, gold earrings hanging down to her neck, necklaces and pearl strings and lots of bangles and finger rings. She holds a lotus bud in one hand and a full bloomed one in the other.

True to the tradition of its time, the body is in three-fourth profile while the face is in rigid profile accent.

This description by Renu Rana.