Indian Art

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The first painting I remember seeing fromSubhash Kapoor’s collection was the KangraVirat Swaroop (catalogue no. 44). This was in1995, and although at that time I had noknowledge of Indian paintings or Indianculture, the impact this image had on me wasboth powerful and true. Despite myignorance, I understood that this paintingexpressed successfully the concept of theInfinite—that whatever it was that was shownin this intimate format was an attempt toreveal the smallness of humanity in relation tothe universe. The experience overcame me, andI was immediately and irrevocably seduced byIndian paintings. It has been a singular goal ofmine, in these past fourteen years, to have anopportunity to present formally an exhibitionof selected paintings from the Subhash KapoorCollection. Therefore, it is our pleasure tointroduce Darshan: Paintings from the Collectionof Subhash Kapoor. The name for this exhibitionis a Sanskrit term meaning “sight,” in relationprincipally to glimpsing the divine. Myintroduction to Indian paintings had seemed tome like a profound experience, and I havelooked at these paintings with darshan, a senseof reverence and devotion, ever since.

Subhash Kapoor has had the fortune andprivilege of having been around paintings hisentire life. He began handling paintings as asmall child at the urging of his late father, ShriParshotam Ram Kapoor. Many of the eminentpersonages in Indian art would visit with hisfather, and Subhash had the opportunity tolisten to their conversations. These great mindsincluded Shri Rai Krishna Das-ji, Padam ShriRam Gopal Vijayvargia, Shri Chuni LalNaulakha, Shri Jagdish Mittal, Shri MotiChandra Khajanchi, Shri Karl Khandalavala,Dr. M.S. Randhawa, Dr. John KennethGalbraith, Dr. V.C. Ohri, Dr. Stella Kramrisch,Dr. B.N. Goswamy, and Dr. Anand Krishna.These formative experiences have played avital role in Subhash Kapoor’s development asa connoisseur and collector of Indian paintings.

The fifty-one paintings selected for thisexhibition provide a useful survey of Indianminiatures. They begin in period sequence

with an example from the well-knownBhagavata Purana series, Baby Krishna Tied to aMortar, dated ca. 1530 (catalogue no. 14), andextend to the late nineteenth century with ThePortrait of the Vallabacharya High-Priest, Gosain-ji(catalogue no. 51). There are examples frommost of the major schools in Rajasthan, thePunjab Hills and Plains, and the MughalEmpire with its outlying, regional courts. Thecollection also includes examples from regionslesser known for their painting traditions, suchas Kutch, Orissa, and Mysore. Together, thesefifty-one works represent a majority of thedifferent styles of Indian paintings, and showhow these manners of painting evolved overthe course of approximately three hundred andfifty years.

We would like to express our gratitude to thosewho have graciously provided help andguidance with this catalogue and exhibition.First and foremost, we would especially like tothank Dr. Harsha V. Dehejia for his translationsof the poetry found on many of the paintings,for his lyrical essay on Krishna paintings,and for the many years of friendship andlearning that we have shared. We would like tothank Jennifer Moore for her contributions tothis catalogue, the writing of several of thePahari entries, her editing of the text, herextraordinary patience, and her invaluablehelp in keeping this project together. We wishto thank Dr. John Seyller, Dr. Navina Haider,Dr. Madhav M. Deshpande, and Dr. MeghanCallahan, for their scholarship and helpfulinsights. Harish Patel did an extraordinary jobdesigning this catalogue, and we thank himfor his vision and intense passion for paintings.A thank you is due also to Subhash Kapoor forthe catalogue photography, and the vigorousand fruitful discussions we had regarding thepaintings.

It is our hope that you enjoy this catalogue andexhibition, and we look forward to seeing youvery soon.

Aaron M. Freedman

Under the Kadamba TreeThe time is the early nineteenth century, andthe place is Nadaun, in the Pahari region. Thewhispering sound is that of the river Beas. Letus tread softly into this idyllic world ofdrooping creepers, sensual nayikas, luxuriantblossoms, and verdant meadows, of an etherealVrindavana bathed in Himalayan moonlight,and soft music of a distant flute—lest wedisturb the romantic rendezvous of SansarChand and the dancing girls of the court. Thisis Kangra, home of the most lyrical paintings ofshringara rasa. This school was the climax ofalmost two centuries of Pahari painting, andhere Krishna kavyawas transformed by thekalam of the Kangra artists, under thepatronage of enlightened rulers like SansarChand, into chirtra, or visual poetry. In thesepaintings, the love of Krishna and the gopisassumed many colors and forms, and colorsspoke and lines resonated with hues ofpassion, and heart-throbbing moments ofbelonging and longing came to life. Here,peacocks and parrots, blossoms, and creepers,all shared the same space on the canvas asgopis and sakhis, for, after all, the same sap thatgave them life gave life to everything in theenchanted space of the most beautifulpaintings of shringara rasa.

While Rajput painting in Rajasthan saw thecomplete evolution from early manuscriptillustration to the fully evolved and refinedminiature painting, it appears that Paharipainting did not go through thistransformation. Driven by pushtimargVaishnavism, Krishna art reached new heightsin the leisured and luxuriant Pahari kingdoms.Another feature of the Pahari kalamwas thegreater homogeneity among the output ofdifferent kingdoms, since artists from onekingdom frequently traveled to another. Pahariart was not a court art in the Rajput sense, and,more important, patronage of Pahari art wasmore enlightened than Rajashtani art, since itnot only gave the artists total freedom in theirwork, but also rewarded them handsomelyand elevated their social status.

There was a certain joyousness and sensualityin the eighteenth- and nineteenth-centuryKangra court, as can be seen from the accountsof Western travelers like Moorcroft. It is notsurprising that the Kangra artists wouldincorporate this ethos in their kalam, and use itto portray the madhurya of Krishna. It has beenrightly said that Kangra painting ischaracterized by a lyricism, a patricianelegance tempered by a simplicity and warmthof feeling, a refined earnestness and agracefulness of form. Kangra paintings arekavyamaya, suffused with the lyricism ofpoetry; layamaya, full of the delicacy andsoftness of dance; and gitamaya, resonant withthe sound of music. Emotion in Kangrapaintings is almost palpable; tender feelings ofKrishna and the gopis are visible, and themusic in the air is almost audible in thesebeautiful paintings, but only to those who havethe sensitivity to go beneath the surface andpartake of the nuances and suggestions ofKrishna’s romantic moments with the gopis.The Kangra kalam is indeed a feminine art,intrinsically an art of sentiment rather than ofpassion. In their time, these paintings musthave been celebrated in elite and culturedcompany, in sophisticated and elegantsurroundings, with the accompaniment of songand dance, with flowing madira andsmoldering hookahs—not silently watched inthe sterile ambience of a museum.

It has rightly been said that Kangra painting isthe superb lyricism and melody of the sweetlove of Krishna made visual. The landscape inthe paintings, which is inspired by the bucolicand luxuriant Pahari terrain, is assimilatedinto the mood of the personages through asymbolism that is very transparent in itspoetic suggestion. While the Kangra kalamexudes a refined sensuousness and lyricalgrace—drawing its inspiration not only fromits idyllic landscape, but also equally from theliving presence of the Krishna of love in thecourts—it is in the depiction of the gracefuland elegantly sensuous shringara rasa nayikathat it reaches its greatest heights of artistic

finesse and mastery. TheModi Bhagavata andthe Lambargaon Gita Govinda (catalogue no. 45)rank as the high-water mark of themagnificent Kangra kalam. So is the Pahariversion of Sunder Shringara (catalogue no. 39).

The Kangra nayika of painting has not only anelegant and sensuous charm, a luminouselegance and unsurpassed beauty, but also arefined romantic sensibility, whether she wasexperiencing the pain of pathos of thepleasures of love, and, in the genre of romanticfigures that Indian artists have produced, sherepresents the most beautiful and the mostexalted. There is in her not only the charm ofromantic sensuality, but also the serenity of awoman in love who is also aware that hersensuality is the doorway to spirituality. TheKangra kalam is indeed a feminine art,intrinsically an art of sentiment rather than ofpassion.

By the middle of the nineteenth century, thePahari kalam had lost much of its finesse andvitality, and the glorious era of five hundredyears of miniature painting was coming to anend. It was a magnificent era, when Krishnakavyawas transformed by the kalam of theartists and the patronage of enlightened rulersinto chitra, or visual poetry, where the love ofKrishna and the gopis assumed many colorsand forms, where colors spoke, and linesresonated with the hues of passion, whereheart-throbbing moments of belonging andlonging came to life, where peacocks andparrots, blossoms and creepers, shared thesame space on the canvas as gopis and sakhis,for, after all, the sap that gave them life gavelife to everything in Vrindavana, and it wasthere, under the Kadamba tree, that we heardthe flute of Krishna, and that flute resonatedwithin us till we found our own real selves.

Notes on Three Paintings:

1. Radha Sits in Sadness While KrishnaDances in the Woods of Vrindavan (catalogueno. 45)

The defining feature of Krishna’s presence inthe enchanted Vrindavana was madhurya, ormellifluous love, a love that was sharedequally by gopas and gopis, cows and birds,blossoming trees and winding creepers,buzzing bees and cooing birds, the clearnoonday sky and the star-studded sky of thenight. Vallabhacharya’sMadhurashtakamresonates the dhruva pada madhuradhipatiakhilam madhuram, (the lord of madhurya isaltogether sweet).Madhurya becomes anepistemic principle in Vallabhacharya’spushtimarg Vaishnavism, for, through it,shringara rasawas transformed into shringarabhakti. Equally, madhuryawas estheticallyevocative, and, in the hands of the Pahari artistwho depicted Krishna’s amorous presence inVrindavana, it was transformed into the lyricaland sensuous depiction of the verdant andbucolic forest where Radha and the gopis wereenveloped in the sweet love of Krishna. Onecan almost feel and hear the sweet notes oflove in this painting.

2. Illustration from a Sundar Shringer Series:Krishna Prostrating Himself at the Feet ofRadha (catalogue no. 39)

In a couple of hundred years after the BhagavataPurana and the Gita Govinda, the pastoralKrishna was transformed into a courtly nayakain the hands of ritikal poets. The names ofKeshavdas and Bihari stand out prominentlyas leaders of the prolific ritikalmovement,where Krishna and Radha are not pastoral butcourtly, their presence not rustic, but urban,their amorous encounters not simple, butsophisticated. The ritikalmovement flourishedin the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,and was patronized by the royalty and thenobility. While we know many of these poetsby name, many others are forgotten andremain nameless. Sunder kavi was animportant part of the ritikalmovement and wasrecognized and honored by Shah Jahan. HisSunder Shringara is considered an importantdocument of the ritikal period. On the back ofthis painting, the doha inscription reads:

Tears roll down the nayikas’s eyes on seeing themarks of the red dye on Krishna’s forehead, and sheis enraged. Krishna tries to assuage her feelings byfalling at her feet, and the nayika relents and shelets go of her mana.

3. Radha and Krishna Meeting in the Forest(catalogue no. 47)

The ethos of the ritikal produced a large numberof poets who remain unknown, but who wrotewith flourish of the romantic and courtlyKrishna. One such poet wrote:

O woman with beautiful eyes, you have stolen in amoment my two buds of the Kadamba. O gopi, donot hide them. Having said this, the delighter ofNanda pulled away her odhni, and thus he rejoicedon the banks of Kalindi.

The Kangra artist, probably in the court ofSansar Chand, renders this couplet in thedistinctive Kangra style.

Harsha V. Dehejia

1 Minerva

Ascribed to Basawan, calligraphy on verso by Muhammad Husayn Zarrin Qalam

Mughal

ca. 1590

Nim qalam (grisaille) drawing mounted on album page with pale green and pink

margins illuminated with gold flowers, and gold, red, and blue margins with blue

rule on blue-tinted paper, with gold fauna on gold floral ground. Verso with four

lines of nasta’liq, margined, ruled, and mounted.

Painting: 7 X 31⁄2 inches (17.8 x 8.9 cm)

Folio: 141⁄2 x 93⁄8 inches (36.8 x 23.8 cm)

AEuropean-styled Minerva, dressed in a cloak, standson a pedestal, holding a stringed instrument and chain.She is confronted by a half-nude baby also dressed in acloak, his held at the shoulder by a clasp, and issurrounded by various articles, including a book andewer. A cat sits by the pedestal, and birds and treesappear in the background.

Basawan, one of the master artists at the Akbar court,was exceptionally skilled in copying and appropriatingEuropean engravings and Christian iconography.Basawan, however, demonstrated an impressiveindependence in copying European subjects, as hecombined so many different elements that it is oftenhard to determine the original sources. In this case,Minerva holds an ektar, a Persian stringed instrument,rather than the traditional spear.1An open book, whichis a symbol of learning and a main attribute of Minerva,lies in front of the goddess.

Although Basawan was not rigorously faithful to theiconographic and thematic conventions of Europeanimagery, he adhered closely to the stylistic issues. Themaster emulated the use of the monochromatic grisailletechnique, which emphasized modeling to convey depthand volume. With the use of black ink, an extremely finebrush, and light washes, Basawan invented a newtechnique in Mughal painting known as nim qalam. Thismanner of painting remained popular from the end ofAkbar’s reign in the late sixteenth century, well into thefirst quarter of the seventeenth century, under the rule ofJahangir.

1 Basawan is known to have replaced a usual Christian attribute with an ektarin at least one other instance. A contemporary drawing by Basawan, in thecollection of the Musée Guimet, Paris, shows a saint holding the stringedinstrument rather than the usual palm frond. See Amina Okada, IndianMiniatures of the Mughal Court (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc.,1992), fig. 90, p. 89.

Anote in the lower margin, intended presumably for thebinder, translates, “Facing the [painting] of the womanholding a baby in her arms.” A later inscription on thebottom of the drawing reads “Ustad Basawan, or ‘MasterBasawan.’” The calligraphy on the verso is signed“Muhammad Husayn [Zarrin Qalam].”

2 Humayun Visiting the City of Tabriz

A Leaf from the “Third” Akbarnama Manuscript

By Basawan

Mughal

ca. 1595-1600

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, mounted on an

eighteenth-century album page, folio 156

Painting: 123⁄4 x 71⁄2 inches (32.6 x 19.2 cm)

Folio: 141⁄4 x 91⁄4 inches (36 x 23.5 cm)

The Mughal Emperor Humayun is welcomed officiallyto the city of Tabriz. In honor of the guest, the city isdecorated, and special games are being held. Tabriz wasfamous especially for a version of hockey (chaugan-epiyadeh),which was more like polo played on foot. TheShah had banned the game previously because of riots,but reinstated it temporarily for their guest’s pleasure.1

Humayun, dressed in green and purple, and thedistinctive turban of his own design, is shown at thepalace’s upper level, where he is being received by theTabriz court. The kneeling figure is either the governor,or Mulla Qutbu’ddin Jalanju of Baghdad, who waited onHumayun in Tabriz and accompanied him to Mashhad,on his way back to India.2

The name of the artist, Basawan, is inscribed at the lowerright. The outline is by Basawan, but the colorist is notmentioned after the name of the senior artist. It mayhave been annotated on the missing lower-right-handcorner.

Basawan belongs to the first generation of Mughalpainters, having worked on the Razmnama ca.1584. Hewas honored during his lifetime with the title of Ustad,or Master, and was one of the best known and mostprolific of Akbar’s artists. S.P. Verma lists no fewer thanone hundred thirty-seven of his works.3

1 An Akbarnama page from the same manuscript, by Banwari (Kalan), now inthe Cleveland Museum of Art, depicts “wolf running,” another game held inhonor of Humayun’s viasit to Tabriz.

2 See H. Beveridge (translator), The Akbarnama of Abu-l-Fazl, vol. 1,Calcutta, 1897, pp. 443-444.

3 S.P. Verma,Mughal Painters and Their Work (New Delhi, 1994), pp.83-94.

4 See Linda York Leach, “Pages from an Akbarnama” in Rosemary Crill,Susan Stronge, and Andrew Topsfield (eds.), Arts of Mughal India: Studiesin Honour of Robert Skelton (Ahmedabad/London, 2004), pp. 42-55.

Provenance: From a private collection that has been in England since the

1940s.

This page is one of sixteen from an important royalmanuscript that is thought to have belonged to HamidaBanu Begum, mother of the Emperor Akbar. Thescholars who have worked on it have identified it as athird royal Akbarnamamanuscript, in addition to thosein the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; the BritishLibrary, London; and the Chester Beatty Library,Dublin.4 Other leaves from the series are in the PolskyCollection, New York; the Nasser D. Khalili Collection ofIslamic Art, London; and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

3 The Emperor Jahangir’s Lion Hunt

Mughal

ca. 1590-1600

Brush and ink, with washes of opaque watercolor on buff paper, laid down between

red and gold floral design, mounted on album page with pink and gold floral motif

on green ground; verso with six lines of black nasta’liq


Folio: 14 x 93⁄4 inches (36.6 x 24.8 cm)

Jahangir, mounted high on anelephant, is poised to thrusthis spear into a lion attackingone of his men. Another lion isbacked into a cave, and amember of the party narrowlyescapes his demise, as a comradehelps him scamper up a tree. Onthe left, a group tends to acaptured cheetah that has beenblindfolded. Others are onfoot or on horseback,holding swords or rifles, engaging inthe hunt. The scene is set in a dramatic,rocky landscape.

In his memoirs, Jahangir mentioned several huntingincidents, as the emperor had an intense passion for thepastime. This painting is probably an illustration of oneof these expeditions. The artist, Farrukh Chela, did twoother versions of this scene.1 There are other versions ofthe exact same composition that are published.2

The inscription on the reverse contains a Persianquatrain in nasta’liq eulogizing a newly crowned king onhis accession who is having the khutba read in his name.The abjad dating in the last verse adds up to 1124 (1712A.D.), the year three Mughals were crowned. Theinclusion of “the enemy being caught” may be anindication that the ruler intended is Farrukh Siyar(1124-31/1713-19). No other ruler in thePersian-speaking world was crowned in that year.

Published: Sotheby’s London, 16 June 1987, lot 126.

1 See Christie’s catalogue, 18 December 1968, lot 76.2 Toby Falk and Simon Digby, Indian Painting (London: Colnaghi and Co.,

1978), no. 16, p. 30; A. Welch and S.C. Welch, Art of the Islamic Book: TheCollection of Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan (Cornell: Cornell UniversityPress, 1982), no. 66, pp. 201-202; one of these is also published in Toby Falkand Simon Digby, Paintings from Mughal India (London: Colnaghi andCo., 1980), no.15.

1 See Linda York Leach,Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from theChester Beatty Library, Vol. I (London: Scorpion Cavendish, Ltd., 1995),pp. 232–293.

4 AHunting Scene

Mughal

ca. 1600 - 1605

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, mounted on eighteenth-century

album page, margins in cream sprinkled in gold, inner borders ruled in black, white,

and red; outer border ruled in black, a later eighteenth-century seal at lower left.

Verso with calligraphy in twelve lines of nasta’liq in black ink on a pale groundwith blue borders.


Folio: 141⁄2 x 105⁄8 inches (36.9 x 27 cm)

Ayoung noble, dressed in red and riding a pale-bluehorse, is poised to let his arrow fly at one of the threeantelope that dart before him. An attendant followsclosely behind him on a brown horse. Another princelyfigure, dressed in orange, rides his richly caparisonedhorse with his falcon at the ready. The men in theforeground butcher a carcass that is part of the rewardfrom the day’s hunt. In the distance, a farmer and hiswife tend to their flock of goats.

Although from an unidentified album, this refinedpainting bears similarity to contemporary pages fromthe Akbarnama in the collection of the Chester BeattyLibrary, Dublin, and the British Library, London. Theopulent scene appears to focus on a pleasing, aestheticimpression, rather than purely bold, dynamic qualities.The artist has chosen a palette that emphasizes greens,lavenders, yellows, and oranges, in addition to theearlier traditions of mainly reds, blues, and browns.1

1 A drawing in the Jagdish Mittal Collection is close in subject andcomposition; see Stuart Cary Welch, Indian Drawings and PaintedSketches (New York: The Asia Society, 1976), no. 30, p. 69. For a version inmirror image, see Sotheby’s London, 23 October 1992, lot 504.

2 See Robert Skelton, “The Mughal Artist Farroukh Beg,” in Ars Orientalis,1957, vol. II, pp. 393-411; and John Seyller, “Farrukh Beg in the Deccan,”Artibus Asiae, vol. 55, no.3 /4 (1995), pp. 319-341..

3 Illustrated in Edwin Binney 3rd, et al., Indian Miniature Painting fromthe Collection of Edwin Binney 3rd, Vol. I: The Mughal and DeccaniSchools, (Portland: Portland Art Museum, 1972), no. 122, p. 144.

5 Portrait of a Prince

Deccan, Bijapur

ca. 1620

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, mounted on album page with

outer border of gold flowers

Painting: 55⁄8 x 31⁄8 inches (14.2 x 8 cm)


Ayoung prince is dressed in pink and gold and with aspray of feathers adorning his turban. The royal standsagainst a pale green ground, holding a closed book in hisraised right hand, and, with his left hand clutching hiselegant gold shawl.1

The distinguishing characteristics of theearly-seventeenth-century Bijapuri style are evident inthis painting: the pink and pale green palette, thefeathers (or sometimes leaves) ornamenting the turban,the arms set one above the other, and the long,embroidered sash. The portraits done by the Mughalartist Farrukh Beg during his period of Deccanipatronage most likely influenced this style.2Aparticularly close example by Farrukh Beg is currently inthe Edwin Binney 3rd Collection, San Diego.3

An inscription appears in the top right corner that reads“Qutb al-Mulk,” or “Pinnacle of Royalty,” and indicatesthat the subject was thought to be a prince of the QutbShahi dynasty. This inscription was added, probably inthe nineteenth century, when the painting was mountedin its current gold border.

Published: Paintings from Mughal India, Colnaghi’s, 1979,

no. 35, pp. 74-75.

1 Linda York Leach,Mughal and Other Indian Paintings from the ChesterBeatty Library, Vol. I (London: Scorpion Cavendish, Ltd, 1995), p 354.

2 Shah Jahan on a Globe in the Chester Beatty Collection (see Amina Okada,Indian Miniatures of the Mughal Court (New York: Harry N. Abrams,Inc., 1992), no. 247, p. 208).

3 Compare with Soldiers Listening to Music in the Chester Beatty collection.See Leach 1995, pl. 68, p. 441.

6 Mystics Around a Campfire

Attributed to Payag

Mughal

ca. 1640-1650

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, mounted on buff

paper, margins ruled in gold.

Painting: 41⁄2 x 23⁄4 inches (11.1 x 7 cm)


In this night scene, three mystics gather ina semi-circle around a campfire in a lushgrove of trees. The expressionisticlandscape is dark and misty, and specialattention has been paid to the naturalisticrendering of the portraits illuminated bythe orange glow of the fire. The eldest,garbed only in a loincloth and seated on askin, tends to the fire, while another plucksat his instrument. The third, seated on theleft, watches the old man with a smile. Acouple of bowls, a pot, and a fan ofpeacock feathers lie on the ground.

The European elements that characterizethis painting, especially the dextrous use ofchiaroscuro and realism, are distinctive ofthe work of the Mughal artist Payag, whowas one of the foremost, and arguablymost outstanding, painters of the ShahJahan court.1Although exceptionallycompetent in the conventional manner ofMughal court painting,2 Payag iscelebrated more for his later, moody,expressionistic group scenes featuring ascetics andcourtiers, the genre to which this painting belongs.

The works of contemporary European masters werestudied closely at the Mughal court, and Payag adaptedthese European techniques in an intense, stronglyindividualistic manner. He was a master of the effects oflight and reflection, and had a unique, plastic commandof facial types. Payag also paid close attention to thedrawing of plants and trees. All these characteristics areevident in this painting.3

1 See Abolala Soudavar, Art of the Persian Courts: Selections from the Artand History Trust Collection (New York: Rizzoli InternationalPublications, Inc., 1992), figs. 43-44, p. 263.

2 Soudavar, pl. 108, pg. 269.

7 Dervish Smoking Hookah

Ascribed to Muhammed Yusef al-Husayani

Iran, Isfahan

Dated 1643 (1053 AH)

Black ink and wash with opaque blue watercolor, mounted on album page with green

grape clusters on pink ground; calligraphy on verso, inscribed Abdullah al Husayni


Folio: 121⁄2 x 9 inches (31.75 x 22.9 cm)

An old dervish sits smoking a hookah, in a sparselandscape of scraggly rocks and tattered trees. A teacup,saucer, and small plate of snacks sit by his side. Thepainting is finely drawn in black ink with a restraineduse of wash. Certain details, such as the cuffs and lowerhem of the garment, and the hookah mouthpiece, havebeen colored in lapis blue.

The inscription to the left of the hookah provides thename Muhammed Yusef al-Husayani, and the date A.H.1053 (1643 A.D.). An artist by the name of MuhammedYusef is known to have worked at the court of Shah’Abbas II (r. 1642-1666), under the tutelage of Reza-eAbbasi, the master artist of the royal atelier. Reza’sstudents worked closely under their teacher, and copiedhis style until they were able to develop their owndistinctive characteristics as artists. Muhammed Yusefwas one of Reza’s most talented disciples and is knownto have modeled his style closely on that of Reza, basing,for example, his style on that of his master’s in hispaintings of dervishes, one of his master’s favoritesubjects.1A similar seated dervish, but without ahookah, is signed by Reza, and may have been theinspiration for this painting by Muhammed Yusef.2

On the verso of the album page are three calligraphicpanels written in Ta’liq script, with the signatureAbdullah al-Husayani.

8 The Temptation of St. Jerome

Mughal

ca. 1630-1635

Opaque watercolor on paper with thin yellow border, varnished

Painting: 133⁄8 x 10 inches (34.13 x 25.4 cm)

St. Jerome, dressed in a monk’s robe, kneels on the floorof a cavelike interior. His hands are clasped together inprayer, as he tries to remain focused on the small bookpropped before him on a ledge and the crucifix hangingon the wall that shows a beturbaned Christ wearing aloincloth. A voluptuous woman leaning into his viewand putting her hand on her chest distracts his attention.Manuscripts and a bowl lie on the floor.

After St. Jerome spent four years in the desert outside ofAntioch, fasting, praying, and learning Hebrew, he had along sojourn in Bethlehem. It is here that he studiedscripture and completed his translation of the Bible intoLatin. In this part of the saint’s life, he is usually shownin solitude, with his books and a crucifix or a skull,emphasizing his meditation on sacred truth. The womandepicted is actually an apparition of his own earthlydesires that tempt him and distract him from hisdivinely inspired tasks. This image may have been takenfrom the saint’s letters, in which he mentions that,during his time in the desert, he had had visions ofRoman virgins.

This image of St. Jerome is based, in all likelihood, on anunidentified European engraving. As a result not only ofthe activities of Jesuit missionaries and visits ofdiplomats, but also of an increasing trade between theMughals and the West, a regular supply of Europeanengravings made their way to India during the ShahJahan Period.

9 Saint Roch

Deccan, Bijapur

Mid-17th century

Marbled paper drawing with ink and translucent watercolor on paper, mounted on

album page with plain cream border



AEuropean-styled pilgrim holds one hand to his breast,and, with the other, clutches a staff to which is tied asmall bag of belongings. Awinged putto clings to thefigure’s right leg and holds up the pilgrim’s skirt. Asmall dog accompanies the pilgrim. The uncoloredgroup is positioned against a marbled ground. Thesmall painting is mounted on a cream-colored,nineteenth-century album page with a blue border andwhite, red, and gold rulings. The other side of the albumpage is an early nineteenth-century Deccani painting ofa blue yogi seated in meditation on a leopardskinoutside a hut in the forest.

St. Roch (ca. 1295 – 1327), a pilgrim-saint fromMontpellier, France, was born with an auspicious redcross on his breast. This detail is indicated by the figure’shand’s being placed over his heart. The saint wasafflicted by the bubonic plague, but managed to surviveand cure others of the disease. The putto lifts St. Roch’sskirt to reveal the dark spot of the bubo on his thigh.1

Bijapur was a center for the production of marbleddrawings in the mid-seventeenth century.2Although ithad been thought that these works originated fromTurkey or Persia, the costumes, the handling of theswirling skies, the high shading of the figures, and thesimilarly treated marbled papers found in contemporaryDeccani albums point, instead, to a Bijapuri provenance.The subject of this marbled drawing was certainlycopied from one of the many European engravingsbrought to India by visiting Jesuits. This example is oneof the few known in which the background is marbledrather than the figures.3

Published: Christie’s South Kensington, 30 April, 1998, lot 345.

1 Identified by Dr. Meghan Callahan, independent scholar, from an emailcorrespondence, October 4, 2008.

2 For a discussion of marbled drawings from the Deccan, see Mark Zebrowski,Deccani Painting, (London: Sotheby Publications, 1983), pp. 135-138.

3 For other examples of this rare technique, see Stuart Cary Welch, AFlowerfrom Every Meadow (New York: The Asia Society, 1973).

10 Royal Elephant and Mahout

Attributed to Bahadur Singh

Uttar Pradesh, Oudh

ca. 1765-1770


outer buff border with gold-leaf splashes; inner blue border with gold floral pattern;

blue, red, gold rulings, calligraphically signed on the reverse by Muhammad Musa

al-Husayni.



Amahout holding a golden goad is seated on a royalelephant that walks across a field under a pale sky. Theelephant is richly caparisoned with jeweled trappingsand a gold and green saddlecloth decorated withflowers.

The treatment of the European-style background withgray cumulus clouds against a pale, blue-green sky andtrees seen at a distance is a trademark of Bahadur Singh,a chief artist at the court of Shuja-ud-Daulah of Lucknow(r. 1754-1775). Bahadur Singh’s Portrait of a Mufti in a

Landscape, in the collection of the British Library,London, exemplifies this style.1 Bahadur Singh workedin close collaboration with another master artist, MihrChand, who influenced his style greatly, and togethertheir artistic legacies dominated Oudh painting fornearly the remainder of the eighteenth century.

Published: Sotheby's London, December 14, 1987, lot 30.

1 See, J.P. Losty, “Towards a New Naturalism: Portraiture in Murshidabad andAvadh, 1750-80,” in After the Great Mughals: Painting in Delhi and theRegional Courts in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Barbara Schmitz, ed.(Mumbai: Marg Publication, 2002), fig. 12, p. 48.

11Uttar Pradesh, Oudh

ca. 1770


orange-red borders with splashes of gold leaf and white and gold rulings

Painting: 83⁄4 x 6 inches (22.2 x 15.2 cm).


An episode is illustrated from the medieval Persian lovepoem of Khusraw and Shirin. In an attempt to meet hisbeloved Shirin, Khusraw passes a beautiful young ladybathing at a pool, but does not realize that the maiden is,in fact, his love, because the two had only seen portraitsof each other and had not yet met in person. After muchtravail and adventures, Khusraw and Shirin areeventually married.

Mid-eighteenth-century Mughal painting enjoyed arenewed concern with naturalism. Unlike the strictorthodoxy governing art under the patronage ofAurangzeb, artists in the mid-eighteenth century wereexposed to various types of European art that circulatedfreely in India. These artists appropriated certainEuropean elements, such as the landscape style, andincorporated them into their paintings. Landscape, inparticular, was used to create a believeable space fornaturalistically rendered figures. These landscapes, andthe figures that populated them, were also nowpresented from an eye-level perspective, which addedto their sense of naturalism.1

1 See J.P. Losty, “Towards a New Naturalism: Portraiture in Murshidabadand Oudh, 1750-80,” in After the Great Mughals: Painting in Delhi andthe Regional Courts in the 18th and 19th Centuries, Barbara Schmitz,ed., (Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2002), pp. 34–55.

2 For a discussion of Kettle’s work and influence in Faizabad, see MildredArcher, India and British Portraiture, 1770–1825 (London: Sotheby’sPublications, 1979).

3 Toby Falk and Mildred Archer, Indian Miniatures in the India OfficeLibrary (London: Sotheby Parke Bernet, 1981), p. 138, fig. 240, p. 436.

Khusraw Espies an Unrecognized Shirin Bathing

It is thought artists operating in Oudh, such as DipChand, Mihr Chand, and Mir Kalan Khan, were open tothese new influences and different artistic traditionsbefore the visit of the British artist Tilly Kettle toFaizabad in 1772-73.2A similar painting, illustrating adifferent episode from the story of Khusraw and Shirin,The Death of Farhad on Mount Bisutan, by Mir KalanKhan, in the collection of the British Library, in London,from the Johnson Album 9, no. 11, has been given apre-Kettle dating of ca. 1770.3 The treatment oflandscape and figure, and the relationship between thesetwo elements, are nearly identical in the example in theBritish Library and the painting under discussion.

12 Darbar of Shah’ Alam II

Uttar Pradesh, Delhi

ca. 1772-1780

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, inscribed on verso in brown ink

“A Durbar or The Emperor’s Court of Audience”


Shah’ Alam II (r. 1761-1805) sits in regal splendor on adomed throne in an immense, colonnaded hall, withcourtiers on both sides. The massive scale of thearchitecture dwarfs the figures.

This painting shows the emperor, probably soon after hereturned to Delhi, in December of 1772. In May of 1771,Shah’ Alam had left Allahabad with a small force underthe command of his general Mirza Najaf Khan, for theexpress purpose of taking back the Delhi throne andrestoring the bygone glories of the Mughal Empire.Shah’ Alam, however, was essentially given the throneand remained a mostly ornamental figurehead. Britishcontrol over the region strengthened during this period,and a Maratha was appointed to run the Delhiadministration.

This painting may be interpreted as an attempt by Shah’Alam to illustrate his reclaimed place in Mughal history.Although it is he who is the compositional focus, it is thearchitecture and the surrounding Mughal legacy that isthe real subject of the painting. Most portraits of theemperor show him as a blind old man, referencing Shah’Alam’s disfigurement at the hands of his wazir during atemporary evacuation from Delhi in 1788. The youngerappearance of the emperor in this painting helpsindicate its earlier date.1

1 For another earlier painting of Shah’ Alam in the collection of the Museumfür Islamische Kunst, Berlin, see J.P. Losty “Towards a New Naturalism:Portraiture in Murshidabad and Avadh, 1750-80,” in After the GreatMughals: Painting in Delhi and the Regional Courts in the 18th and19th Centuries, Barbara Schmitz, ed., (Mumbai: Marg Publications, 2002),fig. 44, p. 44.

“A Durbar or The Emperor’s Court of Audience”

1 The attribution to Sewak Ram is based on another, nearly identical paintingwith an inscription giving the name of the artist. See Subhash Kapoor andAaron Freedman, ACelebration of Twenty Years on Madison Avenue:3000 Years of Sacred and Secular Art (New York: Art of the Past, Inc,1996), fig. 25, pp. 54-55.

13Attributed to Sewak Ram

Bihar, Patna

ca. 1810

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, mounted on nineteenth-century

album page with white outer border with gold leaves, innermost border of blue with

intertwining gold foliate design, and inner border of deep-blue chevrons filled with

foliate designs on yellow ground, borders with white and gold rules, and blue and

gold outermost rules.

Painting: 12 x 77⁄8 inches (30.5 x 19.9 cm)


An elderly Aurangzeb is escorted in a golden palanquinthat is carried aloft by bearers dressed in bright red. Theemperor is accompanied by an entourage of courtiersand two large bullock carts. It appears the party isreadying for a hunt, as a group of courtiers line up withfalcons in hand and Aurangzeb’s imperial horse beingbrought to the side of the palanquin. The rest of theconvoy is shown in the hills escorting a secondpalanquin covered with a red curtain. The phalanx ofsoldiers and caparisoned elephants carrying bannersseem to be making their way toward the ramparts of thedistant city at the upper right.

Sewak Ram (ca. 1770-1830) came originally fromMurshidabad and was one of the first artists to settle inPatna around 1790, where the British presence held thepromise of affluence in the later eighteenth century.1 Theartist was prolific, and the importance of his studio roserapidly during this period. The studio receivedpatronage from British governors-general, such asGilbert Eliot (1751-1814), the first earl of Minto, andWilliam Pitt (1773-1857), the earl of Amherst. SewakRam was apparently fluent in two distinct styles ofpainting, one closer to European watercolors, and theother, like this example, that was more traditionallyIndian.

Aurangzeb Escorted in a Palanquin to an Imperial Hunt

14 Baby Krishna Tied to a Mortar

Delhi-Agra Region

ca. 1530

Opaque watercolor and ink on paper, verso with lengthy inscription


After Yashoda has hastened back to the house to findKrishna sitting on a mortar eating the butter from asmashed pot of curds, she decides to tie the mischievouschild to the mortar. No matter which cord Yashoda triesto fasten Krishna to the mortar with, he contrives that itshould be too short. Finally, upon seeing his mother sogreatly vexed, Krishna allows himself to be tied. As seenin this painting, Yashoda goes back into the house,satisfied that she has secured the child, but Krishnabegins to crawl away, dragging the mortar with him,until it is wedged deliberately between two arjuna trees.In the next part of the narrative, Krishna pulls on themortar until he levels the trees. Everyone, includingYashoda, runs outside to see what has caused the greatnoise. Two dazzling gandharvanas emerge from the fallentrees. Krishna having released them from a curse in aformer birth, the two bow to Krishna and fly up toheaven. The gods then shower the earth in flowers tobear witness to the lila of Krishna.

This painting belongs to a well-known and widelypublished Bhagavata Purana series. This set is thought tobe the earliest known to have survived, and was animportant iconographic and stylistic prototype for laterIndian painting. The series is especially characterized byits vigorous movement, intense palette, and imaginativecompositions. Paintings from this group are dispersedamong public and private collections throughout theworld.

1 Leaves from this manuscript are in various public and private collections. Fora list of additional pages, see Indian Miniature Painting from theCollection of Edwin Binney 3rd, Vol. I, The Mughal and DeccaniSchools. (Portland: Portland Art Museum, 1973), p. 156, pl. 130.

2 Surya Doshi, “An Illustrated Manuscript from Aurangabad, dated 1650A.D.” Lalit Kala, no. 15 (1972), pp. 19-28, pls. 11-13.

15Possibly from Aurangabad, Deccan

ca. 1650

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, thin yellow inner border, black,

red, and blue rulings, plain outer border



Dressed in a brilliant floral gold sari, Radha sitscomfortably against a pink and green bolster with hersakhi, or female confidante, on a boldly patternedcarpet. Her left hand gestures toward her friend inconversation. The sakhi, in turn, has her hands upraisedas she listens respectfully to Radha. The white wallbehind the women is decorated with alternating red andblue decorative bottles set into ornately carved niches.Two female attendants gossip together to the right ofRadha and her friend.

The topic of the ladies’ conversation is, of course, thedashing blue god, Krishna. The crowned divine loverstands outside in sandals, dressed in his characteristicyellow garments, and holds a lotus flower and scepter.He is depicted against an intense orange field, whichserves as an effective and contrasting framing device.

This painting comes from a well-known, dispersed GitaGovindamanuscript.1 The Gita Govinda (Song of theHerdsman), written in the late twelfth century, expoundson the irresistible intensity of Krishna’s divine love. Thestyle of this particular Gita Govinda series remainsdifficult to attribute with absolute certainty. It bears closesimilarity to a mid-seventeenth-century painting fromMewar, but it is also thought to have come from theAurangabad court in the Deccan. This theory is based onthe discovery of a colophon from a similar Rasamanjarimanuscript found in Mewar.2

Provenance: This painting is from the Benkhaim Collection and prior to

that, from the Bickford Collection.

Exhibited: Stanislaw Czuma, Indian Art from the George BickfordCollection, at the Cleveland and other museums, 1975-77.

Illustration from a Gita Govinda Series: Radha Confides in Her Sakhi

1 Other paintings from the same series can be found in Daniel Ehnbom, IndianMiniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection (New York: Hudson Hills Press,1987), no. 43, p. 100; and Joseph Dye III, The Arts of India: VirginiaMuseum of Fine Arts, p. 375; Czuma, no. 124; Poster, 1994, no. 248, pp.299-300; Welch, 1985, no. 21, pp. 54-56; Mittal, 1969, pp. 26-27, pl. 5.

16South India, Mysore

dated 1670 (samvat 1592)

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, black and red ink, brown borders

Painting: 61⁄2 x 7 inches (21 x 17.2 cm)

Folio: 81⁄4 x 19 inches (21 x 48.3 cm)

The five Pandava brothers are seated together in a line,receiving two warriors who arrive on horseback andelephant. Painted alternately in yellow and brown withgreen and red pants, the brothers all touch their breastswith their right hands. Each Pandava also has a bowtucked under his right arm and wears a tall crown. Thewarriors arrive with big smiles and weapons raised inthe air. The scene is presented on a solid red ground andis drawn in a rhythmical, muscular line.

Although the temple and palace wall paintings inSouth India from the seventeenth century and earlierstill exist, illustrated manuscripts prior to the lateeighteenth century are extremely rare. This fragmentaryMahabharatamanuscript from 1670 is part of a smallcorpus of early paintings of this type from South India.They are influenced by the earlier Vijayanagara style andare very important to the study of South Indianpaintings. Folios are dispersed between the NationalMuseum, New Delhi, the Salar Jung Museum,Hyderabad, the Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum ofIndian Art, Hyderabad, (formerly) the George P.Bickford Collection, Cleveland, the Freer Gallery of Art,Washington, the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York,the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and a fewprivate collections.1

Five Seated Pandava Brothers Acclaimed by Warriors on a Horse and an Elephant

17 Vilaval Ragini

Rajasthan, Bundi

ca. 1685-1700

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, yellow panel with inscription in

Devanagari, thick black rule, and wide red borders with lengthy inscription inDevanagari



In this painting, Vilaval Ragini is represented as a youngwoman at her toilet. The lady’s attendant holds up amirror, so that the subject can arrange a jeweledornament in her hair. She is dressed elegantly in a sari,and adorned with a profusion of jewelry. Amusician sitsunder the throne on a green carpet, playing a vina. Afountain filled with fish flows gently in the foreground.At the upper right, a peacock peers over the palace wall.The palette is intense and lush, as red, yellow, and pinkcontrast strongly against large areas of white.

Joachim Bautze asserted that, based on the how thenames of certain ragamalas changed after 1700,1 thisseries must predate 1700. The composition of theragamala paintings from this series is developed from thewell-known Chunar ragamala series done in 1591, whichis seen as the prototype for the resultant Bundi style.2

This series seems also to be contemporary to the Bundiragamala set, for which a large number of paintings are inthe Kanoria Collection, and have been dispersed invarious other private and public collections. There is, forexample, a version of the Vilaval Ragini from thisparticular ragamala series that is very close in style andcomposition to the example under discussion.3

1 Joachim Bautze, Drei “Bundi” – Ragamalas. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichteder rajputischen Wandmalerei (Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 1987), pp.327 330.

2 Another page from the same ragamala series is published in Amy Poster, ed.,Realms of Heroism: Indian Paintings of the Brooklyn Museum, (NewYork: Brooklyn Museum in assoc. with Hudson Hills Press, 1994), no. 124, p.166.

3 See Milo Cleveland Beach, Rajput Painting at Bundi and Kota (Ascona:Artibus Asiae, 1974), fig.32, pl. 33.

1 A number of paintings from this series are in the Goenka collection, Mumbai,published in A. Krishna, Indian Miniature Paintings: J.P. GoenkaCollection, (New Dehli, 1988), col. pl. I. Other pages are published in S.Kramrisch, Painted Delight: Indian Paintings from PhiladelphiaCollections (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1986), p. 92; DanielEhnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, (New York:Hudson Hills Press, 1985), nos. 17 & 18.

2 See Pratapaditya Pal, The Classical Tradition in Rajput Painting fromthe Paul F. Walter Collection. (New York: Pierpont Morgan Library), 1978,no. 4 (b).

18Rajasthan, Mewar or Provincial Mughal

ca. 1693

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, plain borders with inner white

and black rulings and outer rulings of white and black with thin yellow border.

Verso with erased Bikaner Collection stamp, Numbered folio 30, nagari inscription



Krishna engages the crane demon, Bakasura, in battle, ashis brother, Balarama, and two other men stand by.Krishna pries the beak open with both hands, exposing along, red tongue that flails about in distress. Blood poursfrom the side of Bakasura’s mouth onto the whiteplumage, as Krishna rips the beak open, ultimatelykilling the demon. The background has been dividedinto two fields: Krishna and his entourage occupy thered half, and the demon fills the black side.

This painting from a Bhagavata Purana series has oftenbeen considered an early example of the Bikaner school,dated ca. 1600.1 However, there is another painting fromthis series, in the collection of Art of the Past, New York,which has a colophon with the date Samvat 1750 (1693A.D.). This dating changes radically how these paintingsare seen. In addition, the traditional Bikanerclassification may also need further study. The boldnessand intensity of the paintings from this series, alongwith the style of the figuration, may point instead to aMewar, or a Provincial Mughal workshop,2 especially ifthe paintings are from the late seventeenth century.

Other leaves of this Bhagavata Purana series are in the J.P.Goenka Collection, Bombay; the Goenka Academy ofArt & Music, New Delhi; the Suresh Neotia Collection,Calcutta; the Paul Walter Collection, New York; thecollection of Edwin Binney 3rd, San Diego Museum, andother public and private collections.

Krishna Subduing the Crane-Demon Bakasura

1 See figure 20.2 See Hermann Goetz, The Art and Architecture of Bikaner State (Oxford:

Bruno Cassirer, 1950), pl. V.

The Gopis Gather on the Banks of the Yamuna in Anticipation of Krishna19Rajasthan, Bikaner

ca. 1690-1700

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, gold inner border, black and

white rules with pinkish-orange outer border, numbered 15 in Devanagari on topborder


Folio: 93⁄4 x 13 inches (24.7 x 33 cm)

The gopis gather on the banks of the Yamuna, chattingexcitedly, as they, as well as the cattle, peacocks, andother animals, await the coming of Krishna. Three of theyoung ladies go to the well-appointed pavilion at the leftto convey the news of Krishna’s imminent arrival toRadha, who leans against a purple and green bolster,and joyfully raises a flower bud to her smiling face. Ameticulously rendered landscape forms the backgroundunderneath a pale blue sky.

Bikaner painting, especially from the late seventeenth- tothe early eighteenth century, was influenced particularlyby the Mughal style. This is seen most clearly in thecareful attention to detail, the believable articulation ofspace and depth, and the interest in accurate depictionsof flora and fauna.

From a now-dispersed Bhagavata Purana series, thispainting bears similarity to another early Bikanerpainting in this collection, Krishna Decapitates Shishupala.1

It compares also to another contemporary Bikanerpainting depicting the Kakhuba Ragini, especially inregard to the treatment of foliage.2

1 See Daniel Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, (NewYork: Hudson Hills Press, 1985), no 68 pp 148, 149; B.N. Goswamy, PaintedVisions – The Goenka Collection of Indian Paintings, (New Delhi: LalitKala Akademi, 1999), nos. 120-123, pp 151-154; Edwin Binney 3rd,Panorama de la miniatura de la India: Miniaturas de la colecion deEdwin Binney 3rd, (Monterey, 1973), pp 82-83, no 24; Pratapaditya Pal, TheClassical Tradition in Rajput Painting from the Collection of PaulWalter, Exhibition catalogue. (New York: Asia Society, 1978), pp. 96-97, no25; Stuart Cary Welch & Milo Beach, Gods, Thrones, and Peacocks, (NewYork: Asia Society, 1965), p. 75, ill., and p. 120, no. 29.

20 Krishna Decapitates Shishupala

Rajasthan, Bikaner

ca. 1700

Opaque watercolor heightened with silver and gold on paper, plain border with black

ruling

Painting: 91⁄2 x 121⁄2 inches (24 x 32 cm)

After the greatMahabharatawar, all the great kings weregathered at the Rajasuya (soma sacrifice at the end ofconsecration) of Yudhishtira. All those present praisedKrishna, except for Shishupala, the king of Chedi, who,instead, hurled the filthiest of insults at the god. Theattendants rose to retaliate against the king, whoadvanced menacingly toward them, but, before anythingfurther unfolded, Krishna unleashed his sudarsanaweapon in the form of a discus, decapitating Shishupala.

This series, now dispersed, incorporates many of thefeatures for which Bikaner painting is famous. This isdemonstrated by the meticulous attention to detail andfinely modeled figures, derived from Mughal influence,and the eccentric disposition of subject matter andbrilliant, but subtle, color contrasts.

Other paintings from this series, dated variously fromthe third quarter of the seventeenth century to thebeginning of the eighteenth century, are in severalprivate and public collections, including the J.P GoenkaCollection, the Paul Walter Collection, and the ex-BinneyCollection at the San Diego Museum of Art.1

21 Ragini Devagandhari

Malwa

ca. 1720

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, red borders with thin black rules.

Inscription in Devanagari in yellow panel at top and also on verso

Painting: 14 x 9 inches (35.6 x 22.9 cm)


The musical mode Devagandhari, performed aftersunrise, is conceived as a solitary heroine whom the painof separation from her lover has transformed into anemaciated ascetic. The heroine, a peacock fan in herhand, is shown leaning on a swing on the right side ofthe painting, and waiting for the object of her affection.The heroine in her altered state is shown garbed in ablack loincloth and seated on a tiger skin, meditating, ina yoga position. The now-male ascetic still retains muchfemininity and grace from his previous life as a woman.The peacock fan, which the waiting woman had beenholding, now hangs from the branch of a lushlyflowering tree that is teeming with birds. Theheroine-turned-ascetic now spends her days in thecompany of other ascetics, shown involved in assortedactivities and colorfully populating the rest of thepainting.

22 Three Elephants on the Way to the Chaughan

Rajathan, Udaipur

ca. 1720

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, red border with black rule,

inscription in Devanagari on verso,Maharaja Sujun (Sangram) Singh, inEnglish, numbered 2/83


Folio: 193⁄8 x 36 inches (49 x 91.5 cm)

Three elephants are making their way through town onway to the Chaughan,1 or sports arena, located justoutside Udaipur. Handlers and sardars are present on allsides of the animals, and Maharana Sangram Singh,under a golden parasol, follows on a brown horse.Attendants run behind him with fans, flywhisks, and theimperial morchal. Thirteen nobles on horseback ridebehind the maharana. Townsfolk and children gather inthe narrow streets to watch the spectacle.

These thirteen nobles appear again in another paintingfrom the same series, in the collection of the NationalGallery of Victoria, Melbourne. That painting shows thenobles seated with Sangram Singh inside the Chaughan.2

An inscription on the back (of the National Gallerypainting) identifies the more-important of these guests:Bakhat Singh, Takhat Singh, Bihari Das, Pratap Singh,Kishan Das, Kishan Singh, Joravar Singh, Sam Singh,and Tulsi Das. The name of Sangram Singh’s favoriteelephant, Raja Gaj (King of the Elephants) Singhbadal, isalso listed. In the painting under discussion, the largeelephant in the middle dressed in elaborate trappingsmust be Singhbadal.

The carefully written inscription on the reverse of thepainting is in English. It is likely Maharana SangramSingh signed the painting himself, since he had learnedEnglish and may have written his name on selectpaintings.3

Provenance: The British Rail Pension Fund.

Published: R.M. Cimino, Life at Court in Rajasthan. Indian Miniaturesfrom the seventeenth to the nineteenth century (CESMOexhibition, Palazzo Reale, Turin), Florence, 1985, no. 85

1 The Chaughan remained in use into the twentieth century. Raja Deen Dayaltook a photograph of the arena in the late nineteenth century. See AndrewTopsfield, The City Palace Museum Udaipur: Paintings of Mewar CourtLife (Ahmedabad: Mapin Publishing Pvt., Ltd., 1990), fig. 3.

2 See Topsfield, Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery ofVictoria (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1980), fig. 74, pp. 72-73.

3 Toby Falk, Sotheby’s: Indian Miniatures —The Property of the BritishRail Pension Fund (London, 26th April 1994), p. 38.

23 Lakshamana Watches over the Sleep

Rajasthan, Mewar

ca. 1730–1740

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, yellow margin with black rules

and red outer border, yellow panel with nagari text



Inscription: Ayo. Ramayana Ro Patra. 79. Pachae Rama Lakshamana Pache

Bolya. Sajia Khro. Pachae Sajia. Kidhi. Vol Havae Shruta.

Lakshamana Beg. (This Ramayana, page 79. Rama and

Lakshamana talk of the time to sleep. In the back, Rama and

Sita sleep, while Lakshamana watches over them.)

Rama, Lakshamana, and Sita appear first on the left sideof the painting, looking for a suitable place to bed downfor the night. Once the location is found, Lakshamanaprepares Rama and Sita’s bed, then watches over thecouple as they sleep. The scene is set against a rich,umber ground peppered with sparkling white blossomsand shrubs. Awhite sky appears above, and the Gangesflows in the foreground. When they awake afterspending their first night in the forest, the three willmake their way to the hermitage of Bharadvaja atPrayaga, where the Ganges and Jamna meet, to ask thesage’s advice.

This painting, from the Ayodhakanda, the second book ofthe Ramayana, is indebted to the Ramayana series paintedby Sahib Din and others during the reign of Jagat Singh(r. 1628-1652).1 The use of a simultaneous narrative, inwhich the characters can appear several times withinone frame to indicate the temporal or spatial progressionof a story, was introduced by Sahib Din. This deviceenables the artist to include nearly every part of the tale.In addition, the palette, composition, and figural styleare also developed from this important work.

1 See J.P. Losty, ed., The Ramayana: Love and Valour in India’s Great Epic(British Library: London, 2008).

Lakshamana Watches over the Sleeping Rama and Sita

24 Jharokha Portrait of Rao Desalji

Gujarat, Kutch

ca. 1740-1750

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper


Large-scale jharokha portraits, such as this one of RaoDesaliji of Kutch, are rare but not unknown in Rajputportraiture. The paintings would originally have beenset into recesses or glass frames hanging on the palacewalls. The jharokha portrait was a Mughal invention. Itoriginated from the Mughal emperors’ custom ofshowing themselves to their subjects from the samewindow of their palace every morning before theybegan their legislative responsibilities. This type ofwindow was known as a jharokha, and portraits set inthese architectural niches are referred to by the samename.

Although the subject of this painting is of the Kutchruler Rao Desaliji, it is thought that an artist fromNagaur or Jodhpur may have executed the painting.1

Raja Bakhat Singh of Nagaur visited the court of RaoLakhpatji of Kutch, Desliji’s son, sometime between 1740and 1751, before he assumed the Jodhpur throne in 1751.Bakhat Singh brought with him a group of artists whoare thought to be responsible for a group of paintingsthat include a large jharokha portrait of Lakhpatji, as wellas this one of Desaliji.2 These two portraits bear closesimilarity to contemporary jharoka portraits of BhakatSingh done at the Jodhpur court.3

1 Rosemary Crill has identified these similarities and attributions in her book onMarwar Painting. She also rightly attributes the Nagaur/Jodhpur style toseveral durbar and processional scenes painted for Rao Lakhpatji. SeeRosemary Crill,Marwar Painting: AHistory of the Jodhpur Style(Mumbai :India Book House, Ltd, 1999).

2 B.N.Goswamy & A. Dallapiccola, APlace Apart: Paintings in Kutch:1720-1820 (New Delhi, 1983), frontispiece and pl. II.

3 Andrew Topsfield and Milo Cleveland Beach, Indian Paintings andDrawings from the Collection of Howard Hodgkin (New York: Thamesand Hudson, Inc., 1991), fig. 25, pp. 70-71; Crill, fig. 69, p. 92.

25 Episodes from the Siege of Lanka

Rajasthan, Kotah

ca. 1775

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, black ruling and red borders



Two separate scenes from the final chapter of theRamayana, the Lanka Kanda, are conflated in thispainting. The narrative begins with the scene on theright, the monkey and bear armies attacking a giantdemon. This behemoth is Kumbhakarna, a brother ofRavana, whom Brahma had cursed to eternal sleep.Needing the giant’s assistance in fighting Rama,Ravana appeals the sentence, and Brahma allowsKumbhakarna to awake for one day. The giantengages the monkey and bear armies of Rama,who are led by the monkey generals,Hanuman and Sugriva.

After Kumbhakarna’s eventual defeat at thehands of Ramaand hisarmies,Ravanaappears on thebattlefield. Clad ingolden armor, hestorms out ofLanka on his golden chariotpulled by eight white horses.Lakshamana and Vibhisana shootdown his chariot and kill his horses, and thefelled Ravana appears upside down, at the feet ofLakshamana.

26Orissa

ca. 1775

Opaque watercolor on paper, blue border with white ruling, inscription at

top in Devanagari



Inscription: Your moist lips glow/ Likecrimson autumn blossoms./The skin of your cheek/ Is ahoney-colored flower./ Radha, youare intense./ Your eyes glow likegleaming dark lotuses./ Your noseis like a sesame flower/ Your teethare like white jasmine/ The fieryarms of love can conquer theworld/ By worshipping your face.

Krishna stands before Radha underneath a floweringvine. His right hand is raised in declaration, as heproclaims his love for Radha, who sits on a lowplatform. Krishna’s words are apparently well received,since Radha has a coy smile and plays with her sari. Athin tree separates the two figures. The couple is setagainst an intense red background, with three horizontalbands, colored yellow, blue, and red, each with anintertwining floral motif, forming the ground below.Another band frames the scene at the top, under theinscription panel.

Another painting from this dispersed Gita Govinda seriesis in the collection of the Jagdish and Kamla MittalMuseum of Indian Art, Hyderabad.1

1 Jagdish Mittal, ed., Sublime Delight Through Works of Art (Hyderabad:Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, 2007), fig. 35, p. 131.

Krishna Appears before Radha underneath a Flowering Canopy

27 Ladies Visiting a Jeweler

Rajasthan, Bundi

ca. 1780

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, plain border with flecks of gray

and gold, inner rulings of light blue, red, and green, outer rulings of red



Two young ladies dressed in all their colorful fineryhave come to the house of an old village jeweler withtheir maidservant. Garbed only in a simple white dhotiand turban, the gray-bearded man helps one of hisbeautiful patrons try some of his gold bangles on herslim wrist. The lady’s soft, smiling eyes and her friend’sintense gaze indicate the ladies’ appreciation for thejewelry. The wife or daughter of the old man sits besidehim, baby at her breast, as she heats more bangles over asmall fire. Across from the busy mother sits the simplydressed maidservant, her hands on her right knee,gazing abstractedly into the distance.

The style and palette of this intimate genre scene isstrikingly similar to a well-known dispersed Ragamala

series known commonly as the BostonRagamala, because thirteen leavesfrom the set are in the collection ofthe Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.1

Both the Boston series and thispainting share a heavily shadedopalescent palette, which is typical ofBundi painting from the second halfof the eighteenth century, and anexample of the Rajput appropriationof Mughal painting. The brushworkis also unusually smooth. Themargins of both the Ragamalapaintings and this work are of plainpaper with block-print decoration.

Because of the close similarity between the paintings, itis thought this painting of ladies visiting a jeweler mayhave been executed by the same workshop responsiblefor the famous Boston Ragamala paintings.

1 Pratapaditya Pal, Ragamala Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts,Boston (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1967), nos. 11, 13, 34, 47, 51, 58, 60,62, 68, 70, 71, 73, 87; and Milo Cleveland Beach, Rajput Painting at Bundiand Kota (Asconsa: Artibus Asiae, 1974), pp. 38-39, fig. 100. Other leavesfrom the series are in various other public and private collections.

1 Eric Dickerson & Karl Khandalavala, Kishangarh Painting (New Delhi:Lalit Kala Akademi, 1959), pl. X, pp. 38-39.

28 Maharaja Pratap Singh at a Holi Celebration

by Amar Chand

Rajasthan, Kishangarh

1791

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, alternating gold and green

borders, with innermost and outmost in gold. Verso with inscription (detailed

below), and preliminary sketch of the painting

Painting : 143⁄4 x 111⁄2 inches (37.5 x 29.2 cm)


Inscription on verso:Tasvir Fagh ki Maharaja Dhi Raj Maharaja Shri Pratap Singhji Bahadur ki Umar

Baras 28 Rajasthan ki Sanagher Aamal Musavvir Amar Chand

(Painting of Faghun (Holi), King of Kings, Pratap Singh at the age of 28, bythe artist Amar Chand)

A nimbused Maharaja Pratap Singh (r. 1788–1798) sitsenthroned on the palace veranda, with members of hiscourt and a host of beautiful young girls. They arecelebrating Holi, the spring festival of colors. The tintedwater and powder being thrown about stains the whitearchitecture pink. At the horizon, under an evening sky,is Lake Gundalao, with red and green boats floating.

The inscription on the reverse provides for a precisedating; it indicates that this painting shows Pratap Singhat the age of twenty-eight. Pratap Singh was born in1763, meaning this painting was executed in 1791. Theinscription also provides the name of the artist, AmarChand. Amar Chand was one of the most important andhighly regarded artists working at the Kishangarh courtin the second half of the eighteenth century. He workedin the royal atelier at the same time as Nihal Chand, whois regarded as the greatest artist of the Kishangarh court.

Another painting by Amar Chand, illustrating the courtof Sardar Singh (r. 1764–1766) enjoying a moonlightmusic party, provides information that is helpful inlooking at the painting under discussion. As in thisPratap Singh painting, the Sardar Singh painting alsoprovides the names of those depicted in the portraits.The name of most interest to this discussion is that of thepreviously mentioned Nihal Chand. The artist is shownas a middle-aged man, seated in the exalted presence ofthe maharaja, indicating that Amar Chand was quiteyoung when he painted the Sansar Chand picture, butnear the end of his career when he did this painting ofPratap Singh, approximately twenty-five years later.

1 Andrew Topsfield, Paintings from Rajasthan in the National Gallery ofVictoria (Melbourne: National Gallery of Victoria, 1980), p.139.

2 There are quite a few paintings that remain in the collection of the NationalGallery of Victoria that have inscriptions identifying Chokha as the artist, orare attributed to him, with Maharana Bhim Singh as the subject; Topsfield,figs.206, 207 (fig.2), 210, 212, 213, 216 (fig.1), 232. Paintings by, orattributed to, Chokha are also in various other public and private collections.

3 Jawan Singh was Bhim Singh’s only surviving son. There are also someportraits remaining of Amar Singh, the older brother of Jawan Singh, but hedied in 1818, leaving Jawan Singh as the heir to the throne.

4 Topsfield, fig. 216.5 Topsfield, p.139.

29Attributed to Chokha

Rajasthan, Deogarh

ca. 1825

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on cloth, borders of red, yellow, and deep

blue

Painting: 441⁄2 x 341⁄2 inches (113 x 87.7 cm)

Inscription on verso:Maharaja Dhiraj Maharana Shri Jawan Singhji Ghoravan Dhule Asavan (JawanSinghji on Horse Dressed as Bridegroom); Kimat (Price) 30 rupees; MaharanaShri Bhim Singhji

Jawan Singh of Udaipur (r. 1828–1838) rides to hiswedding on a pale-pink stallion with his attendingretinue, who hold staves, swords, a morchal, and themaharaja’s requisite hookah. The scene is paintedagainst a green ground, typical of paintings from thisperiod. Blue and white clouds touched with pink,orange, and gold roll softly across the top of thepainting. Gold heightens the horse’s trappings and thefigures’ dress.

The broad physiognomy with its strong profile, seenespecially in the treatment of Jawan Singh, and thebeautiful fluidity of line, seen in the supple rendering ofthe horse, are characteristic of the artist Chokha. Thismaster artist came from one of the most importantRajasthani artist families of the later eighteenth andnineteenth centuries. In the 1760s, Chokha’s father, therenowned artist Baghta, worked for Maharana Ari Singhat Udaipur. From ca. 1769-1811, Baghta found patronagewith the Rawats of Deogarh, a tributary of the Mewarkingdom.1 Although Chokha probably began hisprofessional career apprenticed to his father at theDeogarh court, it appears that he spent most of hismature career painting for the Mewar court, especiallyMaharana Bhim Singh (r.1778–1828).2

Maharana Jawan Singh on Horseback, as a Bridegroom

Although Bhim Singh was Chokha’s greatest patron, theartist also painted for the Maharana’s son and successor,Jawan Singh. Chokha was active until ca. 1830, and,therefore, painted Jawan Singh both before and after heassumed the throne in 1828.3 There is, for example, apainting in the collection of the National Gallery ofVictoria that is attributed to Chokha and dated ca. 1825that shows Jawan Singh shooting a hare.4 This largeportrait of Jawan Singh on the way to his wedding iscontemporaneous with the painting at the NationalGallery of Victoria.

What distinguishes this painting from the number ofsurviving portraits of Jawan Singh is the importance ofthe scene and the quality and size of the painting. Thiswedding was certainly of significance to Jawan Singh,and he would surely have asked the master of his atelier,Chokha, to record the event. An inscription on the backof the painting identifies the subject and the occasion.According to Andrew Topsfield, there are also survivingwall paintings in Chokha’s style5 at the Udaipur palace.It therefore seems that, since Chokha was verycomfortable with large-format commissions, he wouldhave been a logical choice for such an importantpainting. The name of Jawan Singh’s father, Bhim Singh,is also listed, but written by another hand. It is possiblethat Jawan Singh gave this painting to his father as agift at a later time, and a different record-keeper notedthe possession. Interestingly, the price of 30 rupees isalso noted, which may have been the commission paidto Chokha.

1 Robert Skelton, The Indian Heritage: Court Life & Arts under MughalRule (London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1982), pl. 5a, no.155, p. 66.

2 Daniel J Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection, (NewYork: Hudson Hills Press, 1987), no. 78, pp.168-9.

30Rajasthan, Jaipur

Dated 1830 (Samvat 1888)

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, gold and red borders. Verso with

lines of Devanagari identifying the rulers, ajmer ke maharaja dhiraj maharajasri sawai jai singhji maharana jawan singhji



The two nimbate rulers sit against bolsters on a floralcarpet with a gold ground and with a tented enclosurehung with lush panels of red velvet painted with gold

floral patterns. The rulers’ respective retainersof nobles and courtiers, arrangedsymmetrically on a white ground, standbehind them on either side. Two horsesand an elephant, gifts each has brought forthe other, are on either side of the tent.

The inscription on the back of the paintingstates that the meeting between Jai Singh and

Jawan Singh took place at Ajmer in1830 (samvat 1888). The purpose of the

meeting was for the ruling princes ofRajasthan to confer with theGovernor General LordWilliam Cavendish Bentinck.(Both states had submitted toBritish rule in 1818.) Therulers of Jaipur and Udaipur

are mentioned, as well as is the“Lord Saheb,” i.e., Bentinck. The

lists on the verso are of theaccompanying sardars or noblemen.

A painting of the same size, virtually identical in everydetail but for the tent’s being painted with floral spraysrather than left plain, and without the horses andelephant, appeared in the 1982 exhibition The IndianHeritage: Court Life & Arts under Mughal Rule (andillustrated in the catalogue of the same name)1 at theVictoria and Albert Museum. Another nearly identicalversion, but with the tent decorated in a floral pattern, isin the Ehrenfeld Collection.2

Maharaja Jai Singh III of Jaipur, Receiving Maharana Jawan Singh of Mewar in His Camp

31Kishangarh, Rajasthan

ca. 1835-1840

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, reddish borders



Animbused Mokham Singh sits with his court aboard alarge vessel, where he is elevated on a platform, as theyall watch a dance performance. A smaller boat floatsalongside and carries another group of dancers dressedin vivid hues. The event takes place on Lake Gundalao,and below the hills in the distance, one can seeKishangarh sprawling along the shore. Themembers of the court not invitedonboard the boat are seated by thewater’s edge at the left.

Mokham Singh assumed theKishangarh throne in 1838, after hiscontroversial father, Kalyan Singh, was forced toabdicate. Mokham Singh ruled for only threeyears, since he died in 1841 at the age oftwenty-four, but he is shown wearing a beard, anindication of some physical maturity, and thispainting was certainly executed toward the endof his life.

This is an exceptionally large-formatpainting, and works of this size are quiterare. In addition, since Mokham Singh’sreign was so short, there is littleremaining from the period. The finebrushstroke and impressiveattention to detail are testamentto the continued high level ofpainting at the Kishangarh courtinto the mid-nineteenth century.

Published: Pratapaditya Pal, Dancing to the Flute: Music and Dancein Art: Art Gallery of New South Wales, Australia 1997, pp.270-271, fig. 172.

Exhibited: Sydney, Australia: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1997.

Mokham Singh Watching a Dance on a Boat

32 Bangal Raga

Punjab Hills, Basholi

ca. 1690-1695

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold and silver on paper with a red border and

black and white rules. Inscribed in takri at the top of the red border: bangal ragbhairaveda putra, (Bangal Raga, the son of Bhairava).



Bangal, the son (putra) of Bhairava Raga, is depictedwithin a pavilion, seated on a blue carpet with scrollingfloral designs and bordered by a green floral meander.He is shown as a prince, leaning against a large greenbolster, holding a mirror and admiring his own visage,with a gold katar tucked into his striped sash. A femaleattendant, holding a flywhisk in her left hand and whitehandkerchief in her left, stands behind him. She wears apink skirt decorated with floral sprigs. The tips of herfingers, like the tip of the flywhisk, are delicatelyhennaed. The figures are depicted against an intenseyellow background, and the pavilion’s elegant pillarssupport an elaborate tiered roof with eaves projectinginto the red border.

In another Pahari depiction of Bangal Raga, the prince isshown tying his turban while an attendant stands infront of him, holding his mirror,1 but yet other paintingsshow Bangal grooming his mustache. In this painting,the prince has obviously completed his grooming and isadmiring the handsome results in his mirror.

It is likely that this painting comes from what WilliamArcher calls the Second Basohli Ragamala.2 Two pagesfrom this series were formerly in the BachofenCollection. Another page with a very similar carpet, alsofrom this Ragamala series, is in the Ehrenfeld Collection.3

Provenance: R. J. Varney, June 1959

Reginald Varney was a curator at the Indian Departmentof the Victoria and Albert Museum and this paintingwas specially chosen by WilliamArcher together withRobert Skelton as a gift for Varney, when he retired fromhis position at the museum to work at theCommonwealth Institute.

Label on the reverse for mount:Presented to R. J. Varney as a token of their esteem by his

colleagues of the Victoria and Albert Museum, June, 1959

1 Klaus Ebeling, Ragamala Painting (Basel: Ravi Kumar, 1973), p. 288.2 W. G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills (London: Her

Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1973), vol. I, p. 43, Basohli 14(i and ii); vol. II, p.28, pls. 14 (i-ii).

3 Daniel J. Ehnbom, Indian Miniatures: The Ehrenfeld Collection (NewYork: Hudson Hills Press, 1985), pp. 186-187, cat. no. 89.

1 For further discussion on the four distinct style of the Shangri Ramayana,see B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters ofNorthern India (Zurich: Artibus Asiae and Museum Reitburg, 1990), pp.76-79.

33Punjab Hills, Kulu or Bahu

ca. 1700-1710

Opaque watercolor on paper with an unpainted border, inscription in Takri:Top left-DasrathaTop left- AssemblyMiddle (in bold), number “7”



King Dasratha sits crossed-legged, supported by apink-striped bolster. He is dressed in a distinguished redhue with a katar tucked into his sash. Attendants standbehind him, one holding a flywhisk and a parasoloverhead. With the approval of the Brahmins andministers, King Dasaratha is announcing the coronationof his son, Rama, to an assembly of nobles. All of themen, except for one attendant, are adorned with a tilak ofred or yellow.

Illustration from the Shangri Ramayana: King Dasratha in Assembly

There are four distinct styles from this well-knownShangri Ramayana set established by the scholar WilliamArcher. This painting displays the distinguishedcharacteristics of Style II. While all the styles show acertain lack of depth, Style II stands out with a stronguse of pattern and contrasting color. The figures aremarked by distinct, beaked noses and red shading undertheir eyes,1 and there is a sharpness of the detail to thepainting. The strong lines of the architecture contrastwith the soft folds of the garments and swirling designof the rug.

1 For further discussion on the origin of this series, see B.N. Goswamy andEberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India(Zurich: Artibus Asiae and Museum Reitburg, 1990), pp. 76-77.

34Punjab Hills, Kulu or Bahu

ca.1700–1710

Opaque watercolor on paper, with a red border



The monkey army of Rama has overcome the demonforces of Ravana, at Lanka. Hanuman stands to the farleft, gesturing his army to push forward. Armed withboulders and uprooted trees, the monkey army isbludgeoning and otherwise wreaking havoc on theirenemies, while those demons who can make haste toseek refuge within the palace walls.

The distinct hard lines and ridged figures of thispainting classify it as belonging to Style III of the ShangriRamayana. Note how the figures stand out from theplain, flat background. Of the four distinct styles, StyleIII has the least amount of documentation. All theknown paintings of this style depict the monkey army.

Known as the Shangri Ramayana, these paintings havelong been attributed to a Kulu origin. The largest portionof them had been in the possession of a directdescendant of Raja Raghbir Singh, of the Shangri branchof the royal line of Kulu, but evidence of Kulu origin hasalways been somewhat circumstantial. Contemporaryportraits of Bahu nobility also bear striking similaritiesin style to the earlier works of the Shangri Ramayana,suggesting a possible Jammu-Bahu origin, but, in theend, there is no consensus regarding the attribution.1

Illustration from the Shangri Ramayana: The Demons Retreat from the Monkey Army

1 W, G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills: A Survey andHistory of Pahari Miniature Paintings (London: Sotheby Parke BernetPublications Ltd, 1973), p. 230.

35 Parashurama Defeating Kritaveeryarjuna

Punjab Hills, Bilaspur

ca.1700–1720

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper with white and black ruling and

red borders



Parashurama’s father, Jamadagni, has been given adivine cow, whose milk flows abundantly. Upon hearingof the gift of the cow, King Kritaveeryarjuna becomesdeeply envious and decides he must have the divineanimal for his own. He demands that Jamadagni give itto him, but Jamadagni refuses. King Kritaveeryarjunabecomes enraged, murders Jamadagni, and demandsthat his army take the cow, but Kritaveeryarjuna hasunderestimated Parashurama’s strength: Parashuramahas not only slain the king, but has also singlehandedlydefeated the entire army.

In a vivid composition of primary colors, Parashuramais depicted as deep blue and draped in red from thewaist down. He wields an axe, which he holds overheadwith his left hand, while, with his right, he holds the hairof King Kritaveeryarjuna, who is depicted as afourteen-armed demon. Four of his arms have alreadybeen severed and are strewn about his feet. He holds anabundance of weapons, including a bow, arrows, an axe,and a knife. The divine cow has golden wings and fliesoverhead, while, at the bottom of the painting,Parashurama’s father lies dying in the arms of a femaleattendant.

There is a weightlessness to Bilaspur paintings, as theforms seem to exist independent of the background. Thevibrant use of primary colors also links the style of thepainting to the region. Parashurama is depicted withdelicate, spiraled locks down the side of his face, anotherBilaspur characteristic born of Mughal influence.1

Provenance: Mandi Royal Collection

36Attributed to Manaku

Punjab Hills, Guler or Basholi

ca. 1735–1740

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, thin white and black rules with

red borders. Verso with five lines of Devanagari script from the BhagavataPurana. The first line and a half is black, while the second half of the second line andthird line alternate black and red letters, and the fourth and fifth lines are in red

script. Inventory stamp from the Mandi State Library.


Folio: 81⁄4 x 121⁄2 inches (21 x 31.7 cm)

Against an intense, orange field, Varaha, the boar avatarof Vishnu, emerges from the cosmic silver oceansplashing water. The avatar is shown after he hasrescued the sacred Vedas and the earth goddess, Prithvi,from the powerful demon Hiranyaksha. Althoughsometimes shown in an anthropomorphic form withonly a boar’s head, the deity in this painting is depictedin his complete boar manifestation. Brahma, the sage,Narada, and another sage, who stand by the thin, greenbanks of the ocean, meet Varaha, expressions of wonderon their faces.

Provenance: Royal Collection of the Mandi Court (stamped on verso)Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck Collection

Varaha Emerging from the Ocean

The painting is attributed to the master Manaku. Theson of Pandit Seu and the older brother of Nainsukh,Manaku, was born ca.1700, and died ca.1760. Manaku isthought by some to have spent his entire career in thestate of Guler, but others believe he may have spent timein Basholi. The Bhagavata Purana series, which thispainting exemplifies, is known for its bold use of colorand arresting compositions. The delicate treatment of thelandscape, as well as the refined brushwork andunwavering lines, are characteristic of Manaku’s style.This series formed a stylistic and iconographicprototype, which was to have a profound influence onlater Indian painting.1As is seen clearly in this particularpainting, the series is known for its energetic movement,vitality, and stunning color.

This Bhagavata Purana is similar in style and format tothe well-known 1730 Gita Govinda series painted byManaku,2 and was perhaps painted as a companionseries. The greater part of this Bhagavata Purana isdivided between the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; theChandigarh Museum; the Lahore Museum; theRajasthan Oriental Research Institute, Udaipur; and theprovincial Museum, Lucknow.3

1 For a full discussion of Manaku and his pivotal role for Guler paintings, seeB.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters ofNorthern India (Zurich: Artibus Asiae and Museum Reitberg, 1992), pp.240-249.

2 Goswamy and Fischer, 1992, nos. 100-104, pp. 252-257.3 For related pages from this series see Goswamy and Fisher, 1992, nos. 107 &

108, pp. 260 & 261; Sotheby's, London, April 29, 1992, lot 23; Archer, 1973,Vol. 1, no. 23, p. 51; Khandalavala and Chandra, 1965, Jehangir Catalogue,pl. N; Goswamy, Marg, 1968, XXI, color no. 4, pls. 23-24; Randhawa, BasohliPainting, pl. 4; Beach, Boston Museum Bulletin, 1965, pp. 168-177;Aijazuddin, p. 12-13, no. 7; Goswamy, 1986, nos. 83, 112, 136, 157 and 190;Goswamy and Fischer, 1992, pp. 244-5 and nos. 105-108; Daytona Beach,Treasury of Indian Miniature Paintings, figs. 26-37; Christie's, New York,March 22, 2000, lot 162; Dehejia, Devi, no. 83; Goswamy and Bhatia,Goenka Collection, nos. 185 and 186; Christie's, New York, June 16, 1987,lot 31; Sotheby's, New York, May 19, 1982, lot 106; Sotheby's, New York,March 22, 1989, 162.

37Attributed to Mahesh

Punjab Hills, Chamba

ca.1740–1750

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, thin white and black rules and

red borders. Verso with brush drawing and two-line inscription in Urdu


Folio: 11 x 7 inches (27.9 x 17.8 cm)

This painting is an illustration of an incident recountedin Bhagavata Purana Book X, verses 21-35, which tells thestory of the defeat of the demon Dhenuka.

One day, as Krishna and Balarama are walking througha forest, they come upon a grove of trees full of deliciousfruit. As Krishna begins to shake one of the trees, the

keeper of the grove, the demonDhenuka, appears in theform of a donkey. Thedonkey kicks at the boys,but Krishna grabs the

animal and throwshim into the tree.More ofDhenuka'sfollowers thenappear, also asdonkeys, and

again Krishna sends theminto the trees, until the

demon and his followers are destroyed. The grovebecomes the favorite resort of Krishna and thecowherders, and their cattle enjoy grazing there. In thepainting, Krishna has just hurled the donkey demon intothe top branches of a palm tree, while his brother,Balarama, looks on and cowherders play near theircattle.

On the reverse is a brush-drawing study of the goddessDurga attended by Shiva’s bull and her own vehicle, thelion. This scene illustrates the musical mode BhairaviRagini, from a series based on the Pahari ragamalaiconography of the poet Kshemakarna.

Krishna Vanquishes the Demon Dhenuka

There are two other paintings from this series publishedin the Jane Green Collection, where they have beenattributed to the famous Chamba artist Mahesh, or atleast, to the workshop of the artist.1All these paintingsshare simple, quiet, yet powerful compositions, as wellas the ragamala studies on the reverses. This series bearsmuch similarity to a series illustrating the twenty-fourmanifestations of Vishnu in the Museum Reitberg,Zurich, that have also been attributed to Mahesh, whoflourished between 1730 and 1775.2

1 Pratapaditya Pal, ed. Pleasure Gardens of the Mind: Indian Paintingsfrom the Jane Greenough Green Collection (Los Angeles: Los AngelesCounty Museum of Art), pp. 30-34.

2 See B.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Paintersof Northern India (Zurich: Artibus Asiae and Museum Reitberg, 1992), p.169, figs. 54-55; p. 178, no. 68 for reference). Other leaves from this set arepublished in W.G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills(London, 1973, vol.II, p.136, pls.13-14.

1 Thomas B. Coburn, Encountering the Goddess (Albany: The StateUniversity of New York Press, 1991), pp. 63-64.

2 F.S. Aijazzudin, Pahari Paintings & Sikh Portraits in the Lahore Museum(London: Philip Wilson Publishers Ltd., 1977), especially fig. 41 (xviii), p. 47.

38 The Shaktis Assemble before the Asura Hordes

Punjab Hills, Guler

ca.1780

Opaque and translucent watercolor on paper


To combat the countless demon hordes of the buffalodemon Mahisha, the gods lend their shaktis, or essentialfemale energies, to aid the great goddess Chandiki. Astold in the epic Devi Mahatmaya:

At that very moment, O king, in order todestroy the enemies of the gods,/And for thesake of the well-being of the supreme gods, veryvalorous and powerful/ Saktis, having sprungforth from the bodies of Brahma, Siva,Skanda,/Visnu, and Indra, and having the formof each, approached Candika./ Whatever form,ornament, and mount a particular godpossessed,/ With that very form did his sakti goforth to fight the Asuras1

This Guler painting depicts this moment of the narrativepowerfully. Chandika, on a hilltop and mounted on herlion, is surrounded by the shaktis as they ready to engagethe enemy at the base of the hill. With mouths agape andeyes open wide, the demons stare in fear at the divineassembly. The red, orange, and pink rays of light thatshower down on the demons reflect the power andbrilliance of the goddesses who stand with brandishedweapons.

Paintings illustrating the Devi Mahatmayawere especiallypopular in the Punjab Hills. This particular page is part ofa dispersed series that bears close similarity to anotherdispersed series for which a number of paintings remainin the collection of the Lahore Museum.2

1 Joseph M. Dye III, The Arts of India: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts(Virginia: Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Association with Philip WilsonPublishers, 2001), p. 350.

2 Dye, p. 350.

39Punjab Hills, Kangra or Guler

ca.1780

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper with a dark-blue border



Inscription: “On seeing the evidence of another woman’s presence on her

husband’s body the Nayika becomes a Guru Mana. Tears roll

down from the Nayika’s eyes on seeing the marks of the red

lac-dye on her husband’s forehead. The enraged Nayika turns

Manini. Then the Nayak tries to please the offended Nayika by

falling at her feet. The Nayika’s heart is filled with joy, and

eventually this assuages her Gurur Mana.”

Krishna kneels at the feet of an angered Radha in hopesof being forgiven. But with the warmth of her eyes andsubtle smile on her lips, it is obvious that Radha’s hearthas already forgiven him. She even reaches out her handto cradle his head gently.

The couple is central in the symmetrical composition.Almost–mirror images of foliage flank the room inwhich the lovers sit. The sharp, angled palace wallsdirect the eye to the subjects. Though the composition issimple, there is no lack of detail. Individual leaves andflower petals make up the foliage, and tiny dragonfliesflutter overhead. Many similarities can be drawnbetween this series and the famous ca. 1780 Gita Govindaseries, which is said to represent the highest quality ofKangra painting.1

The Sundar Shringer series illustrates the text by the poetSundar Kavi, who was a contemporary of theseventeenth-century Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan(r. 1628–1658). The poem describes the various moods oflove as well as the classifications of the nayika bheda, orheroines. The most commonly depicted example of theideal romance is that of Radha and Krishna, so it is thiscouple the artisan has used to illustrate the SundarShringar. Their love is so intense that it is compared tothe all-consuming desire of the soul for God.2

Illustration from a Sundar Shringer Series: Krishna Prostrating Himself at the Feet of Radha

40Attributed to Nikka

Punjab Hills, Guler Style at Chamba

ca. 1775-1780

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper. Black and gold rules with pink

borders. Line drawing of front scene on verso in red ochre.



Vamana, the dwarf manifestation of Vishnu, appears as awhite-haired Brahmin priest, with pale-blue skin,carrying a parasol. The dwarf places his left foot into abath, and has it washed by the demon king Bali and afemale attendant. Four priests make offerings and utterprayers in the center, and other demons, humans, andgods, including Shiva, stand by, observing the sceneunder a green and orange tent.

Through the practice of austerities, Brahma grantsKing Bali a boon. With this power, Bali has taken controlover the three levels of the universe. Vamana tricksBali into giving him as much of his empire as he canmeasure in three steps. Bali laughs at the dwarf andgrants his wish. Vamana then assumes the Trivikramaform, and grows to an immeasurable size. With thefirst step, he covers the entire earth. With the secondstep, he measures the heavens. The third step coversthe underworld, and Vamana secures the universe fromthe control of the demon king. Vamana has his feetwashed in a kamandula, as seen in this painting, after thefinal step.

This painting bears close similarity to a contemporaryRukmini-Mangala series in the collection of the BhuriSingh Museum, Chamba, which has been ascribed toNikka, a son of Nainsukh.1 Nikka is known particularlyfor his fine draftsmanship and modeling and hispropensity for asymmetrical compositions, with thefocal point placed outside the center of the painting, andstrong use of white and deep red. The artist is believedto have worked at the Chamba court under thepatronage of Raja Raj Singh (r. 1764-1793).2

1 Vishwa Chander Ohri and Roy C. Craven, Jr., eds., Painters of the PahariSchools (Mumbai: Marg Publications, 1998), figs. 11-13, pp. 107-108. AlsoB.N. Goswamy and Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters ofNorthern India (Zurich: Artibus Asiae and Museum Reitberg, 1992), coverimage and fig. 147.

2 For a discussion of Nikka, see Vishwa Chander Ohri, “Nikka and Ranjha atthe Court of Raj Singh of Chamba,” in Painters of the Pahari Schools,Vishwa Chander Ohri and Roy C. Craven, Jr., eds. (Mumbai: MargPublications, 1998), pp. 98-114.

Vamana Having his Feet Washed in a Kamandula

41 The Wedding of Krishna and Rukmini

Punjab Hills, Kangra

ca. 1800-1810

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper with a thin border of yellow, pink,

and green, and a dark-blue outer border


Folio: 141⁄2 x 195⁄8 inches (37 x 50 cm)

Krishna and his bride stand central to the composition,enveloped in gold from head to toe. Krishna’s face isdraped with a delicate, sheer veil, while Rukmini’sfigure is covered completely, except for her tiny, hennaedhands. All the proper preparations have been made;streams of incense swirl around the couple, and a shrineto Ganesha hangs in the background. Wedding guests,musicians, and attendants surround Krishna andRukmini within and near the palace walls, and somepeer from windows overhead. The outer border is thedeep blackish-blue hue of the late-night sky. A brightinner border contrasts with a pale-yellow backgroundand alternating rectangles of green and pink. Pink andgreen recur in various repeated patterns covering thepalace walls and floor.

The attention to detail and fine brushwork characterizethe high point of Kangra-style painting in the earlynineteenth century. Like works from the masters of thistime, the most well known being Purku, the paintinghas a delicate quality, and each one of the dozens offigures is painted with distinct features and uniquelydesigned garments. The same focus is given to thearchitecture. Walls, balconies, and terraces dominate thespace, framing the central figures. Much like the worksof Sajnu, this painting employs strong diagonals in thecomposition. There is still the skewed sense ofperspective that has remained a key element in Indianpaintings, where the central figures, rather than those inthe foreground, appear the largest. The size of thefigures is determined by their relative importance, with,in this example, Krishna being the largest.1

1 For further discussion on contemporary Kangra paintings, see B.N. Goswamyand Eberhard Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India(Zurich: Artibus Asiae and Museum Reitburg, 1990), pp. 356 and 370-372.

1 For a full account of Purkhu of Kangra, see B.N. Goswamy and EberhardFischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India (Zurich:Artibus Asiae and Museum Reitberg, 1992), pp. 368-386.

42Attributed to Purkhu

Punjab Hills, Kangra

ca.1800–1815

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, thin white and black rules and

red borders



A resplendent Krishna and Balarama stand with theirGaruda mount, ready to pluck the desired parijata treefrom the palatial heaven of Indra. The keeper of Indra’sgarden, who stands before them, informs the heroesthat, if they commit such a transgression, they will incurthe wrath of Indra. Urged by the desire of his wife,Satyabhama, to have the celestial tree in her own gardenin Dwaraka, Krishna ignores the messenger’s warningand welcomes the contest with Indra. Ready for battle,Indra, mounted on his white elephant, Airavata, boundswith his retinue toward the usurpers. Members ofIndra’s court watch excitedly from safety, behind thewhite palace walls.

Krishna and Balarama Stealing the Parijata Tree from Indra’s Heaven

This painting comes from a well-known Harivamshaseries that is attributed to the Kangra master Purkhu.1

Other paintings attributed to this artist remain in variouspublic and private collections. Purkhu was knownespecially for his illustration of epic narratives done on alarge-format scale. The Kangra master had animmediately recognizable style. For example, the cloudsare rendered as bold, billowing spirals in pinks, grays,oranges, and whites. The composition is subtle, if notunderstated. Architecture, even though it is not theprimary focus of the painting, also plays a major role inanchoring the composition.

43Punjab Hills, Kangra

ca.1810




In this continuous narrative, Krishna is shown first withhis brother, Balarama, in the upper-left-hand corner.Together, they meet with Vayu Devata, God of Air,outside their tents. Krishna is then seen inside the palacewalls, along with Balarama, meeting with the local kingand his advisors. A tiny Devanagari inscription over thehead of each figure identifies him. This scene is from theUdyoga Parva, or Book of Efforts, the fifth book of theMarabharatha. Krishna tries to make peace between theKurus and the Pandavas, but his efforts prove to befutile, and the two groups eventually go to war.

From the high point of Kangra painting, this work ismasterfully executed. The entire palace has beenheightened with gold and filled with decorative details.The compositional layout of this painting is typical, inthat there is no proper sense of perspective. ThoughKrishna appears both in the center of the painting and inthe upper-left corner, he is depicted in both places innearly identical sizes. Smaller figures appear within thepalace rooms, with the smallest figures at the bottom ofthe page, closest to the viewer, in the form of men andwomen gathering water from the river.

Illustration from the Mahabharatha: Krishna Mediating Between Two Kings


ca. 1810–1820


Painting : 115⁄16 x 85⁄8 inches (28.73 x 21.9 cm)

Taken from chapter eleven of the Bhagavad Gita, thisspectacular painting depicts the infinite andall-encompassing cosmic manifestation of Lord Krishna,as he appears as the Virat Swaroop to Arjuna. In theprevious chapter, after Lord Krishna has explained toArjuna how he is the-everything and the-nothing,Arjuna asks if he could be granted the favor ofwitnessing Krishna’s divine self. Krishna agrees to therequest and bestows upon Arjuna a supernatural eye,which will allow him to gaze without harm uponKrishna, since, without it, the vision of the god wouldburn brighter than a thousand suns.

All at once a vision of the supreme, of the All—theAll-Formed, a force without beginning, middle, orend—the Infinite is manifest all around him. Eventhough Arjuna was given a supernatural eye with whichto view this form, the vision is still beyond him, and heexclaims that it is difficult to look at. In his account ofthe experience, Arjuna’s thoughts and feelings are ofsuch a profound nature that it is difficult for him toarticulate them.

As seen in this image, Krishna encompasses worlds anduniverses. He is that which existed before Time itself. Allthe deities, demons, and supernatural beings are part ofhim and extensions of him. Arjuna remarks that he seesBrahma, the Creator, sitting on his lotus-seat within theform, and that the Immeasurable One is even greater. Inthe painting, Shiva is also shown with Ganga, his Nandi,and Parvati. Agni, Indra, beasts of the earth, demons,mankind, and womankind are all emanate from him.His thousand arms display the multitude of attributesthat signify his transcendence. Even the sky is transformedinto a glimmering gold field, which radiates the powerof the Infinite One as it too emanates from within him.

It is not only the imagination, but also the ability totransform a vision into an image that makes this paintinga masterpiece. The account of Arjuna’s experience ismesmerizing, dizzying, and awe-inspiring. That thesignificance of such a passage could be so effectivelyportrayed is a testament to the brilliance of this artist.

Virat Swaroop


ca. 1820

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper with floral border, inscription on the verso:

From the third song of the first canto, “Joyful Krishna,” the refrain reads:

“When spring’s mood is rich, Hari roamshere to dance with young women, friends –A cruel time for deserted lovers.”



Krishna dances about the woods of the Vrindiban forest,as a group of gopis gather around to admire him. Heswings his arms about playfully, as his long garlandsways back and forth. Other gopis, except for Radha(who is identified by a small inscription in nagari), strolljoyfully about the forest. Radha sits, inconsolable, undera tree, while her companion tries in vain to lift her moodwith a song. She has come to realize she has developed adeep love for Krishna. As the sun sets, streaks of orangeappear on the horizon.

The various moods of the scene are depicted in thestrong contrast to the light colors of the figures and theopen greenery of the forest, to the dark-green hues of thetrees and foliage that create cavernous shadows within.With flowers blooming all around and young birdsperched in the treetops, the artist has depicted the signsof spring, which is confirmed by the inscription“Basant,”meaning spring, above the head of Radha’scompanion.

Provenance: Collection of Raja Dhruv Dev Chand of Lambagraon, Kangra

Radha Sits in Sadness While Krishna Dances in the Forest of Vrindavan

1 W.G. Archer, Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills: A Survey andHistory of Pahari Miniature Paintings (London: Sotheby Parke BernetPublications Ltd., 1973), pp. 307-308.

This painting is part of a series known as theLambagroan Gita Govinda, as it was associated with thecollection of the Lambagraon Palace. These paintingswere executed for either Raja Sansar Chand, or hisbrother, Fatah Chand. Within this series, the sharply cutfeatures and slender forms of the subject help to placethe date of this painting around 1820.

46Punjab Hills, Kangra or Guler

ca. 1820

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper in red borders with black and

white ruling



In this continuous narrative of Krishna frolicking in thewaters of the Yamuna, he appears to the far leftsurrounded by a group of male companions, includingSatyaki and Pradyumna, as well as the five Pandavabrothers—Yudhishtira, Bhima, Arjuna, Nakula, andSahadeva. They have removed their upper garments,which lie in little piles on the riverbank. Krishna closeshis eyes and covers his face as the group splashes himrelentlessly. In the lower-right-hand corner, Krishnaseems to prefer the company of the young ladies in thewater, as he playfully throws his arms in the air andsmiles. The supple young ladies include Rati, Revati,Subhadra, and Rukmani. To the upper right, Krishnaplays fondly with his close childhood friend anddevotee, Narada.

Provenance: Property from a private German Collection

Acquired from the Royal Library of Mandi in 1969

Krishna Surrounded by Groups of Gopas and Gopis in the Waters of the Yamuna

This set of paintings is not only unusually large, but isalso in fine condition. Each image from the Harivamsaoverflows with beautifully painted figures. This vividdepiction of a playful scene is also exquisitely detailed,with delicate shadowing of each face, depiction ofindividual strands of hair, and the amusing effect ofsplashing water. Tiny inscriptions in Devanagari identifythe cast of important characters.


ca. 1810–1820

Opaque watercolor and gold on paper with floral border, with a Sanskrit verse

inscribed on the cover page in nagari script. The painting is marked on the backwith a “19” in Sanskrit.

Painting: 93⁄8 x 143⁄4 inches (24 x 36.25 cm)


Inscription on verso:

“‘O Gopi, with your eyes that are distinctivein the world, every moment do not coverthese two (breasts of yours) buds ofKadamba that belong to me.’ Saying this,and pulling away the covering of Radha'sbreasts on the bank of Yamuna, the son ofNanda was very happy.”

Radha and Krishna sit face to face atop a blanket ofpetals, hidden from the commotion of events aroundthem. Radha touches Krishna’s arm gently as he cupsher breast in one hand. He chides her playfully byshaking his fingers at her. Both are dressed in fiery hues,with Radha draped in bright orange, and Krishnawearing pitambur (goldenrod garments). The foliage thatconceals them is highlighted with tiny blossoms, andbirds perch overhead.

Nearby, herders have brought their cows to drink, andgopis gather to fill their jugs with water, or swim in theswirling waters of the Yamuna River. The village ofVrindavan, surrounded by a protective brick wall, risesup in the background. The entrance has been elaboratedheavily with a naqqar-khana overhead, which holds aband of lively musicians.

The work of a true master, this painting is filled withflowing forms and textures. There is a strong sense ofrealism in both the figures and the flora, but there isstill the forced sense of perspective so common toIndian painting.

Radha and Krishna meeting in the Forest

1 For similar examples of Ranjit Singh and his court, see B.N. Goswamy, Pietyand Splender: Sikh Heritage in Art (New Delhi, National Msueum of NewDelhi, 2000), p.110, fig. 100, and B.N Goswamy and Caron Smith, Domainsof Wonder: Selected Masterworks on Indian Painting (San Diego, SanDiego Museum of Art, 2005), p. 261, fig. 111.

48Punjab Hills, Lahore

ca.1850–1860



Folio: 13 x 173⁄4 inches (33 x 45.1 cm)

Maharaja Ranjit Singh sits central to a compositionconsisting of twelve men, with Urdu inscriptions. RanjitSingh is dressed in red and green and sits in a familiarposture, one foot tucked underneath him, the otherpropped up on a small footrest. An attendant standsdirectly behind him. From left to right, seated in goldenchairs, are Ranjit Singh’s constant companion, the youngHira Singh; his son, Sher Singh; and his Chief Minister,Dhian Singh. They are easily recognizable because of theuse of the established iconography for each man.

Against a deep-blue evening sky and behind the figuresstands the palace, with white exterior walls and a greenand red interior. A red and green canopy, supported bygolden poles, stretches out from the palace roof. A strongKangra influence can be seen in the treatment of thestructure, more specifically in the gently shaded pinklotus shapes on the pillars. This influence is apparentalso in the treatment of the border, with its light scrollingfoliage on a dark background, surrounded by a widerpale-pink border.1

The Court of Ranjit Singh

49Uttar Pradesh, Delhi

ca.1820

Watercolor on paper. Inscribed with identifications in Persian above and alongside

the figures: Surdhaj, a Brahmin of the Chaube caste from Gokal, Brindaban,with his followers Ram Dani (of the Bhopa caste, resident of NandgaonBarsana, holding the sunshade) and Gopal, known as Silu, inhabitant ofMathura).


The Fraser paintings are unique, in that they originate inthe environs of Delhi, an area relatively untouched byEuropean culture at the time of their production. It islikely that this watercolor was rendered at the hand ofGhulamAli Khan during Fraser’s Himalayanexpedition. Such quaintness as depicted in thesepaintings appealed as much to foreigners in the earlynineteenth century as it does now, and pictures of thissort, along with sets illustrating native occupations,architectural renderings, and notable local curiositieswere painted for sale to the British.

Mr. Flowery Man and Attendants

Literature: Archer, M. and Falk, T., India Revealed, The Art andAdventures of James and William Fraser 1801-35, 1989,p. 110, pl. 97.

Welch, S.C., Indian Drawings and Painted Sketches: 16ththrough 19th centuries, The Asia Society, New York, 1976,pl. 27.

Provenance: William (1784-1835) and James Baillie Fraser (1783-1856)

H. P. Kraus, New York

Private American Collection

This elaborately adorned central holy man was knownpopularly as “Mr. Flowery Man.” His was a visualspectacle that was a popular subject with CompanySchool artists. The exotic guise, including a tall hatcovered abundantly with rows of flowers, a hookah, andtasselled accoutrements, borders on the fantastic, yet hisrole as a religious presence in Delhi was legitimate. Tothe left, a youthful devotee carrying a stringed musicalinstrument accompanies him. To the right, an attendantfollower wearing a turban with a floral spray shades theholy man with a tasselled umbrella.

Mr. Flowery Man and his attendantform part of an even-largerassembly of seven fantasticallyattired ascetics accompanied by anattendant, dogs, and monkeys, in agouache attributed to Faiz Ali Khan,another painter of GhulamAliKahn’s circle. The gouache is inthe collection of the Victoria andAlbert Museum, in London.The holy man and hisattendant also appear inanother watercolor publishedby Stuart Cary Welch, and inan illustration in the Dehlie Book,

compiled by Sir Thomas Metcalfe,the Delhi resident.

A Brass Merchant’s Shop50Punjab Plains, Lahore

ca. 1845–1850

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, pale-blue ruling and plain

borders



Abrass merchant is depicted, in the middle of atransaction,with a wealthy sikh. He is in the process ofweighing the merchandise for the patient customer. Themerchant’s young assistant holds the ledger and sits

respectfully behind his master. The shop isstacked with bowls, ewers, andutensils. Romantic paintings ofRadha and Krishna, possiblyillustrations from the Gita Govinda,

hang on either side of the entranceto the storeroom. In the foreground,a couple from the street approachesthe stoic buyer, hoping also to make

a sale. Amadari (street magician), with his twomonkeys, performs in the street for the Sikh noble, whilea dog watches the antics. A red and white awningframes the shop, and its walls are a gleaming white.

The purpose of this painting is to illustrate a trade, inthis case, that of a shopkeeper. It falls under theCompany Style manner, with the painting’s having aclear interest in documenting a scene of Indian life.Although Company School paintings are well knownfrom the Patna and Tanjore areas, they were also done inthe Punjab.1

Another version of this scene is in the collection of theJagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art,Hyderabad.2

1 For other Company paintings from the Punjab, see B.N. Goswamy, Piety andSplendor: Sikh Heritage in Art (New Delhi: National Museum, 2000),figs.178-187, pp. 217-225.

2 Jagdish Mittal, ed., Sublime Delight Through Works of Art (Hyderabad:Jagdish and Kamla Mittal Museum of Indian Art, 2007), fig. 38, p. 137.

Vallabacharya High-Priest, Gosain-ji51By Ragunath

Rajasthan, Nathdawara

Late 19th century

Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper, inscription on verso with name of

artist, Ragunath


Gosain-ji, sitting cross-legged, dominates thecomposition. He wears numerous strings of pearlsaround his neck, and pearls dangle from his ears as well.His orange robe is trimmed with gold, and hewears a gold bracelet on his left wrist. Hisright hand is in a blue rosarypouch with gold detailing. Atilak on his forehead markshim as a religious man.

This portrait depictsVitthalnath-ji, son ofVallabh. Vallabh was thefounder of the Pushti sect inIndia. Vitthalnath-ji wasoften refered to asGusain-ji, which translatesliterally to “master ofcattle.” He lived in thesixteenth century, and,during his life, Gusain-jiwrote much commentary to the Gita.

The artist, Ragunath, was one of the three principalartists from Nathdawara during this period.

Text: Aaron M. FreedmanJennifer M. Moore

Design: Harish Patel

Photography: Subhash Kapoor

Publisher: Art of the Past, Inc.1242 Madison AvenueNew York, NY 10128T: 212.860.7070F: [email protected]

© 2009 by Art of the Past, Inc.No part of this publication may be reproducedin any form, or by any means, without theprior written permission of the copyrightholders.

Printed in Hong Kong

Art of the Past, Inc.New York

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