2-913-629 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Opening of a new bridge at Travancore [Thiruvananthapuram in south India] - the Rajah's State Procession, 1854. The bridge was '...opened in great style by his Highness the Rajah...Our View shows, near the centre of the bridge, the Rajah's magnificent state car...followed by the Princes, courtiers, and native officials, in carriages and palanquins, with their attendant hosts of peons, and by a number of elephants in their court costumes. Below, on the bed of the river, were a troop of elephants, that joined with the cannon and the multitudes around in proclaiming their loud rejoicings. In the front were the Body Guards, the Rajah's Brigade, and the leading elephant, carrying his Highness's flag...the rest of the procession is lost in the grove of cocoa-nut trees, and behind the Pavilion, where Lieut.-General Cullen, the British Resident, and other Europeans, shared in the ceremony...'. From "Illustrated London News", 1854.