Sake Dean Mahomed: Gentleman from Patna honoured by Google Doodle

He began his autobiographical travel narrative with his wrenching departure in 1769 from his childhood home among the Muslim elite of north India.

The First Indian Author in English, Dean Mahomed wrote the earliest accounts of England by an Indian during the era of 19th-century intellectual. Sake Dean Mahomed is still remembered today for his several contributions in bringing Indian culture abroad. He is a highly renowned early non-European immigrant to the Western World who introduced Indian cuisine and shampoo baths to Europe including the therapeutic massage. He is recalled for being the first Indian to publish a book in English.

The Anglo-Indian traveler, Sake Dean Mahomed was born in 1759 in today’s capital of Bihar, Patna, which was then a part of the Bengal presidency. He at his early age served the British East India Company’s army as a trainee surgeon and honorably served against the Marathas. His travel book titled ‘The Travels of Dean Mahomet’ published in 1794 accumulated widespread popularity. It (the book) commenced with the praise of the dictators Timur, Genghis Khan and Babur including descriptions of several important Indian cities.

Dean Mahomet composed his book Travels as ‘a series of letters to a friend,’ recounting to the Europeans among whom he lived the world of India from which he came.  He began his autobiographical travel narrative with his wrenching departure in 1769 from his childhood home among the Muslim elite of north India. He concluded it with his voyage of immigration to colonial Ireland in 1784. Through Travels, he presented his personal account of the multitude of peoples and customs he encountered while marching across north India as part of the English East India Company's military conquest of his homeland. His Travels thus represents a fascinating perspective on these peoples, these customs, and this colonial conquest.

Sake Dean Mahomed initially opened a restaurant in London. Before that, he had worked for nabob Basil Cochrane (a businessman in the early 19^th century). who had installed a steam bath for public use in his house in Portman Square and promoted its medical benefits. He gets the credit of introducing the practice of using shampoo in Europe. His life and career were precisely recorded by Michael H Fischer and Rozina Visram. He learned much alchemy and had several techniques to manufacture varied types of soap, alkali, and shampoo. He died 1851 at the age of 92. He was buried in a grave at St Nicholas Church, Brighton, where his son Frederick was later buried.