The fascinating story of Sophia Plowden, chronicler of Persian and Hindustani songs of nautch performers at 18th century Lucknow court
BN Goswamy Among the British Library’s extraordinary collection of materials relating to the history of Indian music in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries lie dozens of European accounts of the nautch — intimate musical parties at which troupes of high-status North Indian courtesans would sing, dance, recite poetry, and match wits with the assembled company, often to mark special occasions. — Note on a performance at the British Library (2018) A nautch troupe. From the Skinner album in the British Library, London. Having read, and sometimes written on, many accounts of Europe...
Source: tribuneindia.com