Paraath or a large plate

A brass plate or paraath, utilized in a large family orcommunity gathering was borrowed by people in the neighborhood. It is 18 inches in diameter and is about five pounds in weight. This particular plate belonged to my husband’s family and it was a token return gift at a wedding, and all the members of this particularwedding party, in 1911, received it. The inscriptionwritten is the name of the person who got married- a symbol of syncretism. It reads “Eknath Pershad, grandson of Nand Lal” and it is written in Urdu which was the medium of instruction and common parlance through the 1900s in Hyderabad, India.

Brass Metal Plate or Paraath, Hema Malini Waghray