Speaking of what's deep in the culture, I'm still digesting something I read on an Indian-timeline site, especially since I've been finding a lot of portraits from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. The statement was that until the 20th century, "respectable women" were not seen, much less painted. The comment came up especially per portraits of dancing women -- it was stated that it was through the craving of Western fantasies that they were made at all. That if there were photos, say in the 19th century, that the photos were of "nautch girls".
So I wonder if a lot of these paintings were on some level pornographic, even though we can easily see in them the difference between the modesty of the Indian women vs the modesty of Western women.
These women look so much like the Indian women I saw in Sydney - it must be deeply embedded in their culture.
As opposed to the Australian women with mini skirts and extra high-heel shoes, who were desperately trying to look as much like prostitutes as possible.
