This colourful painting depicts a snake charmer and his wife. Both are clad in white-coloured clothes. The wife is holding the snake and the snake charmer is playing a wind instrument made from a dried gourd. His transparent (jama) tunic, sash across his shoulder and headgear suggests that he has received some royal recognition. Such paintings were commissioned by the British East India Company. They were used as records of every-day life in India.
