Betel or Paan Box with Inscription and Floral Scrolls

Description This box is a "pandan," a container for "betel"- thin slices of the nut of the areca palm mixed with spices and lime paste made from ground seashells and wrapped in a leaf of the betel tree. Betel, chewed after meals to help with digestion, was very popular in the Punjab region. This box is inscribed with the name of its owner, Abu'l-Kharid Nur al-Hasan Khan.

Provenance Peter Marks Works of Art, New York; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 1988, by purchase.

Inscriptions [Translation] Abu'l-Kharid Nur al-Hasan Khan

Credit Museum purchase with funds provided by the Ambassador and Mrs. William J. Sebald Fund, 1988