B 3

In 1816 May fourth, Benjamin Bailey and his wife Elizabeth Ella started their journey to India from the Portsmouth dock in a ship named ‘Hero’. They were accompanied by Bailey’s sister Sarah Archer and her husband Rev.Dowson. At the Cape of Good Hope the sea turned rough and it delayed their journey for some time. They reached the Madras port on 9^th September 1816. They were really tired after a long journey so they decided to take rest for a month in Madras. On 16^th October they set out for Kochi by road. They travelled on horseback and bullock carts. It took them a month to reach Kochi. Rev. Norton was there to receive them. He took them to Alappuzha and Rev. Norton’s assignation was to educate Bailey in Malayalam language.

In this relief panel Ajitha Prabhakaran depicts the journey undertaken by Benjamin Bailey and his wife Elizabeth Ella from Madras. They had to depend on bullock carts and horses. The roads were not smooth and in certain places there were no roads at all. The Bailey couple and their retinue undertook this tedious journey with patience. Their arrival is suggested by a ship on the right corner of the panel. And rest of the journey is suggested by making a horse and bullock cart side by side. The artist avoids sequential narrative, instead brings two parallel frames to establish the narrative.