AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RASIKAPRIYA: A Noblewoman reminisces about her lover

NORTH INDIA, GULER, CIRCA 1810-1820

Details

AN ILLUSTRATION FROM A RASIKAPRIYA: A Noblewoman reminisces about her lover
North India, Guler, circa 1810-1820
Dressed in a green angarkha and leaning against an orange bolster on a carpet-covered pavilion, with hookah in one hand and gesturing to the flock of cranes and golden lightening in the dark sky, with one attendant massaging her feet and another standing by with a flywhisk and towel
Opaque watercolor on wasli heightened with gold
6 5/8 x 5¼ in. (16.7 x 13.3 cm.)

Provenance

Doris Wiener Gallery, New York, 1980s

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Lot Essay

The monsoon brings relief from the heat of summer and is welcomed by lovers as a time that they can spend together in comfort. In this case the lone lady points to the sky as she remembers the time she has spent with her lover. Her attendants try to comfort her as she is saddened by her separation from her lover. This is a representation of the smriti dasa of the state of Pravasa or the reminiscence of the separated lovers, described poignantly by a couplet in the rasikapriya of Keshav Das, "Give me the news of my dear one, Oh cloud!"

For another example of this scene see fig. 63 in Randhawa's, Kangra Paintings on Love, p. 110

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