Description (Physical description)
Two porcupine quills worn by young men and women in the ear
Event Date 22/3/1995
Author: maa

Context (Acquisition Details)
Part of a collection of Indian material donated by Gait, numbered E 1916.148.1-87 (from the entry in the accessions register). These items were also numbered as AR 1916.190.1-87 (from the entry in the Annual Report). Some items have since been known only by their Annual Report number and so, for the sake of consistency, the whole collection has been entered on computer as AR 1916.190.1-87. Original accessions numbers are entered in the CRN field. (Alison McKeating, April 1995)
Event Date 22/3/1995
Author: maa

Context (Production / use)
Gustav Imam suggests that these could be Oraon or Munda, as porcupines are frequently found in the forests in the region.
Event Date 2/11/2015
Author: maa

Context (Display)
'Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia' 07/03/2017 - 22/04/2018 MAA exhibition label text reads:

Adorned bodies in Chota Nagpur

In 1916 the governor of Bihar and Orissa donated almost one hundred artefacts from the province to this Museum. Half of these, from the Chota Nagpur area, are thought to have been collected by Sarat Chandra Roy, a lawyer who had long worked with and on behalf of Adivasis in the region.

These ornaments, which Roy had described in his book The Oraons of Chota Nagpur the previous year, point to Adivasis’ connections with peoples nearby and across India. Presented here, removed from the bodies that gave them movement and sound, they call our attention to absent bodies.

4. Quills (surahi chaour) These porcupine quills were worn as ear ornaments, inserted through holes in the ear lobe by men and women.

Oraon or Munda. Chota Nagpur Collected by Sarat Chandra Roy Donated by Sir Edward A Gait, 1916 E 1916.148.15


Event Date 22/3/2017
Author: Remke Velden

Exhibition (Li Ka Shing Gallery)
EXH.2017.2 | Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia
Event Date 8/3/2017
Author: Remke Velden

Description (Physical description)
Surahi chaour. Two porcupine quills worn by young men and women in the ear as ornament. The quills are dark brown, with off-white tips.
Event Date 27/2/2023
Author: Flo Sutton

Context (Field collection)
'Asia; South Asia; India; [Chota Nagpur]; ?Jharkhand; ?West Bengal; ?Orissa; ?Chhattisgarh' has been entered as the place, as these are all contemporary regions corresponding to the historic region of Chota Nagpur.
Event Date 27/2/2023
Author: Flo Sutton