Countryhouse of Holkar. Near Artillery lines - Poonah -1853.
Water-colour painting with some scratching out by William Carpenter (1818-1899) between 1850 and 1856. Inscribed on the front is: 'Countryhouse of Holkar. Nr. Artillery lines - Poonah' and on the reverse: 'Countryhouse of Holkar in ruins nr. Artillery lines - Poonah'.
Pune is situated near to the Western Ghats in Maharashtra at the confluence of the Mutha and Mula rivers. It occupies a strategic place on the trade routes between the Deccan and the Arabian Sea and prospered during the early medieval period. Pune was later the capital of the Marathas in the 16th century until they were deposed by the Brahmin Peshwa family who ruled during the 18th century until the arrival of the British. Jaswant Rao Holkar defeated the Scindias of Gwalior, led by Daulat Rao Scindia, at the battle of Pune in 1802 but was defeated by the British in 1804 and compelled to make peace a year later.