In the painting the device – paddy pounding mill, consists of a beautifully embellished long shaft attached to and upheld on two vertical columns of low height. Attached towards the fore-end of the shaft, a relatively smaller part, is a heavy pounding disc, obviously made of iron, which when fell on the pounding hole thrashed with its weight paddy, or other gain, which it contained, and separated rice or eatable substance from bran or chaff. The other portion of the shaft, a longer one, made this pounding disc rise and fall with shifting of weight, that is, when with weight this larger part of the shaft is pushed down, under the principle of lever its other part is automatically lifted, and with it is lifted the pounding disc, and when the weight from this larger part of the shaft is removed, the pounding disc with its heavier weight falls into the pounding hole and thrashes the grain contained in it.
The entire activity rotates around the theme of paddy pounding and visually around the paddy-pounding mill. The lady, seated on the extreme right close to the pounding hole is turning the grain that it contains so that it is properly pounded. Another one, bent over her, is pouring into the pounding hole the paddy from her pitcher. The lady on her left and the other one on her right, one with a basket on her head, and the other, with a pitcher, are waiting for their turns. Other ladies, carrying alike pitchers or baskets, with paddy contained in them, are in queue. One of them is carrying her girl child tied to her breast, almost as carry their children on their backs the tea-leaf gathers of hills. Two of the ladies, relieved of their paddy baskets, are engaged in operating the paddy pounding device by pressing its shaft. They are holding in their hands the rings used for supporting their head-load, the pitcher or the basket, now lying on the ground. On the extreme left there is a granary with a bottle-like neck, and close to it on its right is seated a partially visible lady with a sieve in her hand, perhaps engaged in straining the pounded grain.
This description by Prof. P.C. Jain and Dr. Daljeet. Prof. Jain specializes on the aesthetics of literature and is the author of numerous books on Indian art and culture. Dr. Daljeet is the curator of the Miniature Painting Gallery, National Museum, New Delhi. They have both collaborated together on a number of books.
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