Sirinbai Ardeshir

Rudolf Swoboda's 1887 portrait of Sirinbai Ardeshir — a distinctly Parsi name, 'Ardeshir' being derived from the Old Persian 'Artaxerxes' and 'Sirinbai' being a Parsi female name — depicts a member of the Zoroastrian Parsi community of India. The Parsis — descendants of Persian Zoroastrians who fled to India after the Arab conquest of Persia in the seventh century — had by the nineteenth century become one of the most prosperous and educated communities in British India, contributing enormously to Indian commerce, science, and culture (the Tata family being the most famous example). A Parsi female portrait in Swoboda's series is particularly significant, adding both gender and religious diversity.

Parsi female dress in the nineteenth century combined Indian sari tradition with distinctive Parsi cultural elements — perhaps including the specific way of wearing the sari associated with Parsi women, distinctive jewelry, and the clothing associated with an affluent, culturally hybrid community. Swoboda renders these elements with his characteristic documentation care. The face is modeled to achieve individual character. The portrait's visual specificity — Parsi rather than generic Indian — makes it among the more distinctive in the series.