Product Description


It is 1798 and Richard Dawson, an English painter, has arrived on the southern coast of India, looking for employment. Finding his fellow countrymen unhelpful, he boldly travels to the kingdom of Tipu Sultan to catch history in the making. Though reputedly cruel to the British, Tipu allows Richard to stay at his fort in Srirangapatna, much to the resentment of his courtiers. As Richard and his apprentice, a runaway Brahmin boy called Mukunda, experiment with Indian and Western styles of painting, they find themselves drawn into a high-stakes political intrigue. Devised by the women of the former royal family of Mysore, the Wodeyars, and catalysed by the striking Suhasini, this plan to oust Tipu must involve active support from Richard and Mukunda. Both painters fall under the spell of the elusive Suhasini, even as their paintings become the unexpected crux of the last Anglo-Mysore War.


About the Author


Gayathri Prabhu is the author of the novels Birdswim Fishfly (2006) and Maya (2003). The Untitled was written over a decade and across three continents, and owes much to the city of Mysore, the National Archives of India in Delhi and the British Library in London. After many years of travelling and being elsewhere, Gayathri has returned to live not far from where she was born, in a town that allows her glimpses of the Arabian Sea on the one side and the Western Ghats on the other. She teaches literary studies at the Manipal Centre for Philosophy and Humanities.