Cubbeer Burr, the great banyan tree

James Phillips after a painting by James Wales (after a drawing by James Forbes)
Cubbeer Burr, the great banyan tree
20 March 1790
Later hand-coloured etching with engraving on paper
15 x 26.5 in (38.1 x 67.3 cm)
Published by James Wales, Wells Walk, Hampstead; London

The printed title (missing) of this work usually reads Cubbeer Burr, the great banyan tree. In fact, the view depicts the Kabirvad Banyan tree on an island in the Narmada River near Bharuch (Broach), Gujarat, which at the time lay within the jurisdiction of the Bombay Presidency. The shorthand (missing from the printed title) “at Bombay” reflects the late-18th-century convention of attaching the Presidency’s name to significant sites, even if geographically distant from the city itself.

This large-scale etching is based on a 1778 drawing by James Forbes, later worked into a painting by Wales in 1789, and here engraved by James Phillips. It was issued in London in 1790 with a dedication to William Hornby, former Governor of Bombay, and to the Bombay Club.

The composition frames the banyan’s immense aerial roots as a vast natural proscenium. Beneath its canopy, ascetic mendicants occupy the shadowed left foreground, while at centre a group of Indian women with musicians approach in procession. To the right, before a pitched marquee, a group of Europeans in 18th-century dress sit at a table, attended by servants, suggesting the colonial practice of camping in “magnificent style” under this celebrated tree. Through the leafy arch, the Narmada river glitters, with cattle at the water’s edge and the silhouette of a domed pavilion beyond.

Contemporary accounts by Forbes describe Kabirvad as measuring over 2,000 feet in circumference, with thousands of aerial roots and the capacity to shelter as many as 7,000 people beneath its shade. By pairing natural wonder with scenes of social exchange, Wales’s print situates the banyan as both a sacred Indian landmark and an imperial emblem. Its dedication to Hornby and the Bombay elite framed the banyan as a colonial trophy — a site of local reverence appropriated as a spectacle of empire.

This print belongs to the earliest generation of large-scale views of India published in Britain, preceding the Daniells’ celebrated Oriental Scenery (1795–1807). Its etched textures convey the monumental presence of the tree with crisp detail, while hand-coloured impressions such as the present example bring out the greens of the foliage and the vivid costumes of its figures. Examples are preserved in the British Museum and the British Library, and the work remains a touchstone in the visual culture of late-18th-century India.

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