Princess Alka’s Bathing Ritual

1831
Rajasthan, India

In 1831, the heat and humidity of India, like Princess Alka’s bathing ritual, provide the perfect sensory opportunity for an awareness of beauty.
From this perfumed atmosphere, unsuspected fascination for the freedom of Western women burgeons in the heart of young Alka. The questions that accompany her transition to the assertions of adulthood invite us into the Sunday reveries of an Indian princess.
Oils, exfoliants and treatments act as chapters in this sensational ritual. So, will the massage provided using perfumed oils and essential tools, the purifying scrub and the fervent ablutions be the source of an awaited relaxation of both body and mind?
This ceremony takes us as far back in time, in classes and cultures as it does into the mind of a young woman in the grip of the unexpected of a life barely commenced.