Mundy Shaheb-er Golpo [The Tale of Mundy Sahib] The story of Mundy is based on academic sources and research which were discussed with the artists before they began composing the narrative poem and pattern for the scroll. The conversations about Mundy Shaheb-er Golpo took place over several days at Naya and Jadavpur University. On that basis, Dukhushyam Chitrakar first composed a poem and set it to music. The painting then began with a pencilled outline of the entire story. Colours were prepared and the panels painted collectively by the chitrakar community over a number of days. Mundy Shaheb-er Golpo [The Tale of Mundy Sahib] is taken from the journals of Peter Mundy, who was an East India Company factor and the son of a pilchard merchant from Penryn, Cornwall. He arrived in Surat on 30 September 1628, and was sent to Agra in November 1630, where he remained until 17 December 1631. He then proceeded to Puttana on the borders of Bengal, and went back to Agra and Surat before returning to Dover on 9 September 1634. He undertook further voyages to India, China, and Japan in April 1636. The manuscripts of his prolific journals are held in the Bodleian Library and the British Library. They include Mundy’s own drawings and tracings of some of his routes. Among the many stories that Mundy tells, this scroll focuses on his account of travelling through Gujarat and Malwa during the notorious Gujarat famine of 1630-32. The scroll painters of Naya responded empathetically to Mundy’s own background of shortage and economic struggle with the decline of the pilchard fisheries in Cornwall, in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In their narrative, Mundy’s early life in Penryn appears prominently, as it reminded the artists in Naya (located close to coastal areas in Bengal) of the constant travails of their local communities of fishermen. During the conversations the scroll painters heard an account of the historical events of the Gujarat famine and Peter Mundy's life and context. They asked many questions about the environment of Penryn and Cornwall, looked at maps and photographs, and discussed the content of his diary entries, which were translated into Bengali for their use. The painters identified with Mundy's circumstances and geographical location, especially the struggling fishing trade, which prompted him to seek employment with the East India Company. The form that their narrative would take, and their preferred points of emphasis were discussed, as well as the dimensions of the scroll, examples of song and rhyme schemes. [This information was taken from the project website at https://faminetales.exeter.ac.uk in 2024] 2020