Tessitori in Rajasthan: 1914-1919

A total of one hundred and thirty photographs were selected from those taken by Luigi Pio Tessitori during his sojourn in India from 1914 to 1919 for an exhibition held at the Torre di S. Maria in Udine, as a continuation of the events promoted in the framework of the international conference Tessitori e l’India.

The photographs portray the sun-burnished faces of the men, the figures of the women in festive attire and the profound expressions of the people with whom Tessitori worked most closely: his assistant Kiśora Dāna , the scholar Vijaya Dharma Sūri and the Maharaja of Bikaner, Ganga Singh. There are also photographs that bear witness to Tessitori's vocation for archaeology. Visitors were able to admire columns, decorative bas-reliefs, fortresses and ancient sites linked with the warrior clans. Tessitori’s interest in anthropology is also evident in the photographs taken at popular festivals at Jodhpur and Bikaner.

A series of other cultural events took place in conjunction with the exhibition, which was open to the public from 9 to 30 November 1994. On 10 November at Palazzo Belgrado, the seat of the Provincial Authority of Udine, Manlio Michelutti, chair of the Società  Filologica Friulana «Graziadio Isaia Ascoli», and Giovanni Pessina, chair of the Accademia di Scienze, Lettere e Arti, presented Tessitori e il Friuli del suo tempo. On 18 November in the conference hall of the Udine Chamber of Commerce, Enrico Fasana (University of Trieste) spoke on Tessitori in Rajasthan. On 25 November in the hall of the Astoria Hotel Italia, Mario Piantelli (University of Turin) presented the Italian-language version of the Bhagavad-gītā - Il Canto del glorioso Signore (Cinisello Balsamo 1994) edited by Stefano Piano (University of Turin).