2-981-811 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Maharajah of Benares, 1876. Visit of the future King Edward VII to India. 'The Maharajah [Ishwari Prasad Narayan Singh] is described by the "Daily Telegraph" correspondent as being a very patriarch in appearance - grey, bent, palsied - yet withal a grand old fellow, gorgeously arrayed in the far-famed Khin-khob cloth, which is a handsome mixture of silk and cloth of gold, which would make the eyes of any English dame of fashion glisten with delight...The Maharajah led the Prince [of Wales] up stairs to the Durbar, where, after a brief conversation, the servitors laid many examples of gold brocaded Dacca muslin shawls at the Prince's feet. The Maharajah then conducted the Prince to a room where other beautiful presents were laid out for his acceptance. In a third room a banquet was laid out, which, however, was left untouched'. From "Illustrated London News", 1876.