The world’s first vaccine and a mysterious picture of three Indian queens
Devajammani became the wife of the royal family of Mysore in 1805 when she was only 12 years old. She was married to 12-year-old Krishnaraja, the third royal descendant of Wadiyar.
The young Krishnaraja then ascended the throne as the new king of South India.
And his wife Devajammani unknowingly became a model in a few days of marriage. He has been used to promote the new smallpox vaccine. The East India Company has taken the initiative to draw a picture of him as a ‘model’ of Ticker.
At that time the treatment of smallpox was very new. Only six years ago, the British doctor Edward Jenner discovered the cure for this disease.
But the British were desperate to vaccinate the Indians against smallpox. They carried out huge vaccination programs in India at a huge cost. They do not want his success to being hampered in any way.
They got this expenditure on the pretext of saving “innumerable lives” in a country with a huge population like India, their argument was that a huge population of India is a “big asset” for colonial power.
The East India Company was able to use the politics, power, and logic very cleverly to launch the world’s first vaccination program in their largest colony, India. It involved British doctors, Indian vaccinators, owners of various companies involved in the project, and Rajarajara, a friend of the British in India.
The kings of Wadia were very grateful to the British at that time because, after more than thirty years of exile, the Wadiras regained the throne of Mysore with the help of the British.
The women in the mysterious picture
Dr. Nigel Chancellor, a professor of history at Cambridge University, says the 1805 film is not only a record of an Indian queen’s involvement in the British vaccination campaign but also of how the smallpox vaccine was introduced at that time.
When the oil-painted painting was sold at the auction house in Sadavi in 2006, it was thought to be a painting by three Indian comedians. Later Dr. The Chancellor proved through his research that this was a picture of the smallpox vaccination campaign of Rani Devajammani of Wadiyar.
Dr. The chancellor said the youngest queen, Devajammani, was standing to the far right of the photo, pointing to where her left hand had been vaccinated.
The woman on the far left of the picture, Dr. Chancellor thinks she was the first wife of the king of Wadia. His name was also Devajammani. The first wife was tested for smallpox under the nose and around the lips, which showed a lighter skin color.
He says that at the time, there was a common practice of preventing this deadly disease — pus was collected from the cocoons of patients who had recovered from smallpox. Then the healthy person was told to dry the pus and grind it into a healthy person’s nose. In this, healthy people would be slightly diseased. It was the treatment for preventing infections and diseases. Her mark around the lips of the first woman.
Originally published at https://allbanglanewspaper.net on September 27, 2020.
