The mystery surrounding a 19th Century portrait and its role in one of the first immunisation campaigns.
When Devajammani arrived at the royal court of Mysore in 1805, it was to marry Krishnaraja Wadiyar III. They were both 12 years of age and he was the newly minted ruler of the southern Indian kingdom.
What followed was a deft mix of politics, power and persuasion by the East India Company to introduce the world's first ever vaccine to India, their biggest colonial enterprise. It involved British surgeons, Indian vaccinators, scheming company bosses and friendly royals - none more so than the Wadiyars, indebted to the British who had put them back on the throne after more than 30 years of exile.
And the British were keen on getting the vaccine to India to "protect the expat population," says Professor Michael Bennett, a historian who has documented the arduous journey of the vaccine to India in his book, War Against Smallpox. There was another, bigger problem - the most effective way to vaccinate was to do it "arm-to-arm". Using this method, the first person would be vaccinated by smearing the vaccine onto their arm with a needle or a lancet. A week later, when a cowpox pustule developed in that spot, a doctor would cut into it and transfer the pus on to the arm of another person.
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