Punjabi Mintrel

The encounter between Trindade and this Punjabi minstrel might have happened in a busy bazaar in Bombay or a meeting place in a village anywhere in India. Like many other itinerant musicians, he made his way south of his hometown to recite and perform Punjabi Sufi poetry as a livelihood.
Trindade’s minstrel greets the viewer with a steadfast gaze asserting his availability to entertain the audience with his folk tales. Accompanied by a tambourine in his right hand and a gandasa, a kind of axe primarily used to harvest crops, in the left, he also wears a small cloth bag, or a potli, over his shoulder. His red and green turban and chaddar, or shawl, and white attire are traditional in Punjab. The young man goes around barefoot, transpiring his less fortunate and itinerant condition.
Like in many of Trindade’s common folk portraits, the artist utilized strong colour contrasts and expressive brush work to bring the composition to life. Nonetheless, the lower garment and the feet of the siter are sketchy and unresolved, perhaps because the artist did not complete his work.
References: Shihandi, Marcella, et al, António Xavier Trindade: An Indian Painter from Portuguese Goa (exhibition catalogue), Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, 1996.