Mabon, Robert, Robert Mabon diary, 1793?
- Call Number:
- MSS 26
- Holdings:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
- Creator:
- Mabon, Robert
- Title(s):
- Robert Mabon diary
- Date:
- 1793?
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Series:
- Series I: Diaries
- Part of Collection:
- Box 1, folder 1
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The collection is open without restriction.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- Copyright UndeterminedThe collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Archives Department.
- Scope and Content:
- Mabon recounts a sketching trip, likely to the Ellora Caves in modern-day Maharashtra, India. When Mabon reaches the caves, he finds himself arrested as a spy, under guard, and required to stay in the caves without sketching or, at times, even writing. He describes the ordeal day-by-day: his letters to Wales and Charles Warre Malet, his attempts to bribe the guards, the conflicting instructions from his captors, and the confiscation of his drawings and camera obscura. It takes several days before Mabon receives permission to retain his drawings and leave. On his return journey, he encounters a poor European looking for work: Mabon gives him some clothes to make him more presentable, as well as an introduction to Wales. The journal concludes with Mabon continuing his journey to either Bombay (Mumbai) or Poonah (Pune) pending Wales’s instructions. The notebook includes several loose pieces of paper, the first a receipt from Wales for 250 ruppees, the second a series of notes on the mountains out of which the cave complex is carved. The caves are identified as Ellora, and Mabon offers a description of the deities within. The closing pages of the manuscript include a running commentary on the dimensions and structure of the caves, with some corrections, suggesting this may be draft copy for a more finished text. Mabon is not particularly fond of the sculptures, noting that “the People of the East worship Figures in Stone merely for their ugliness and deformity” and that “there are beauties to be traced in them but upon the whole they are very indifferent.”
- Physical Description:
- 1 volume ; 32 x 21 cm
- Genre:
- Diaries and Notebooks
- Subject Terms:
- BritishCave templesCavesDescription and travelEllora Caves (India)India
- Associated Places:
- IndiaMumbai (India)Pune (India)
- Associated People/Groups:
- Daniell, Thomas, 1749-1840Gaṅgārāma, active 18th centuryMabon, RobertMalet, Charles Warre, 1752-1815Wales, James, 1746 or 1747-1795
- Finding Aid Title:
- James Wales archive
- Collection PDF:
- https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/11766.pdf
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3410870
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3410870?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1