But the one thing they couldnt get used to was the heat.
Summer in India begins from April and lasts until October.
In the north and in the west, the summer arrives early.
In eastern India and in the coastal regions, rains delay the onset of summer.
A woman reading under a punkah at her residence in Berhampore, 1863.
Punkahs were a luxury found only in palatial homes and government bungalows and offices.
When you go to bed … you are fanned to sleep.
Punkahs were used all over South-east Asia.
This photograph shows a Vietnamese court with a ceiling punkah, circa 1885.
The job of a punkah-wallah was not hard, but it was definitely tedious.
At mealtimes they are a necessity.
But they are too intermittent a palliative to be satisfactory.
Punkah coolies alwayscame fromthe poorest groups in society.
They received a paltry sum for their services, yet they were indispensible in the tropical climate of India.
Punkahs eventually started appearing in many places beyond the Indian subcontinent.
Three punkah-wallahs on a verandah pulling punkha strings, circa1900.
Photo credit:www.columbia.edu
“A little accident happens to the Punka,” from Harper’s, 1875.
