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Lot Essay
Pradyumna was the child of Krishna and Rukmini. When he was just six days old, the demon Samvara kidnapped him and threw him into the ocean where he was swallowed by a fish. This fish was caught by a local fisherman who's wife, Mayadevi, discovered him when opening the fish. The sage Narada revealed the child's identity to her, and she raised him under the guise of her own son to protect him. When Pradyumna was older, Mayadevi revealed his past to him, whereby he challenged the demon and killed him, thus fulfilling his destiny.
W.B. Archer, in Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, p. 50f., refers to this series as "the Large Guler-Basholi" Bhagavata Purana. He notes that "specific scenes and details are frankly based on the Gita Govinda [by Manaku] of 1730-35," as well as "a conscious adoption of idioms, connected with the work of... Nainsukh," suggesting that the principal artist of this series may have been Nainsukh's nephew and Manaku's son, Fattu.
Archer dates the series to 1760-65. However, Edwin Binney reported that K. Khandalavala and B. Goswamy discovered the date 1769 written on a folio in the Binney Collection, cf. E. Binney, Panorama de la miniatura de la India: Miniaturas de la coleccion de Edwin Binney III, 1973, no. 30.
W.B. Archer, in Indian Paintings from the Punjab Hills, p. 50f., refers to this series as "the Large Guler-Basholi" Bhagavata Purana. He notes that "specific scenes and details are frankly based on the Gita Govinda [by Manaku] of 1730-35," as well as "a conscious adoption of idioms, connected with the work of... Nainsukh," suggesting that the principal artist of this series may have been Nainsukh's nephew and Manaku's son, Fattu.
Archer dates the series to 1760-65. However, Edwin Binney reported that K. Khandalavala and B. Goswamy discovered the date 1769 written on a folio in the Binney Collection, cf. E. Binney, Panorama de la miniatura de la India: Miniaturas de la coleccion de Edwin Binney III, 1973, no. 30.