ATTRIBUTED TO PURKHU, KANGRA, INDIA, CIRCA 1810-20

This large and impressive painting depicts an episode preceding the marriage of Krishna and Rukmini, daughter of King Bhishmaka of Vidarbha. Many kings and other suitors have assembled for the occasion and Kaishika, a close follower of Krishna, relates what has been told to him by a celestial messenger. He tells of how Krishna must be offered the privilege of the best of all seats upon his arrival, one that has not been occupied by another. Listening to this we see Bhishmaka, central in white, and Rukmi, the brother of Rukmini. The principal figures are named, although there has been an error on the part of the scribe who has given the name of Bhishmaka as Bhishma, a character from the Mahabharata.
The Harivamsa (“An Account of the Dynasty of Hari [Vishnu]”) is a work of three chapters appended to the great epic, the Mahabharata. The first chapter contains an account of the creations and the genealogy of the Yadavas, the family of Krishna and Vasudeva descended from their Aryan ancestor, Yadu. The second chapter describes the life of Krishna and his affairs with the gopis, where many of the stories are similar to those in the Bhagavata Purana. The last chapter deals with prophecies of the present age (Kali Yuga) and other matters unconnected with the title of the work.
This illustration comes from an extensive Harivamsa series which was once in the possession of the Raja of Nadaun and is now widely dispersed. Many paintings are in the collection of the Government Museum of Chandigarh. Two paintings from the Chandigarh collection are illustrated in Goswamy and Fischer, Pahari Masters: Court Painters of Northern India, Zurich, 1992, nos.164, 165, pp.378-381 and one in Goswamy, Beach and Fischer, Masters of Indian Painting, 1100-1900, Zurich, 2011, fig.4, p.726.
This series has been attributed by Goswamy and Fischer to Purkhu and his workshop. The principal artist at the court of Maharaja Sansar Chand of Kangra, Purkhu was the master of a large atelier and active between 1780 and 1820. Although there are no known works signed by Purkhu, a number of extensive large-sized series have been associated with him and his family, including this Harivamsa, the Giaat Govinda, the Rasikapriya, and the Shiva Purana. For a list of works attributed to his family workshop, see Goswamy and Fischer, op.cit., pp. 720-721.
Our painting has many characteristics associated with Purkhu’s work, including its large format, the complex but flat architecture, the large group of slightly squat figures in the composition, and their defined beards and facial features. The profusion of complex but flat architecture is typical of Purkhu’s narrative scenes and whilst the artist uses diagonals freely, they serve more as elements of design rather than providing any meaningful spatial depth. Also, we find here the joyous way Purkhu treats clouds as “Bold, billowing spirals in variegated hues of pink, grey, white and black” ( Goswamy and Fischer, op.cit., p. 372).
A very similar painting attributed to Purkhu depicting a scene from the Bhagavata Purana was sold in these Rooms, 1 April 2021, lot 61. For other paintings attributed to Purkhu and his workshop which have sold in these Rooms, see 25 May 2017, lots 66, 67, 72; 10 June 2015, lot 69, 71; and 10 June 2013, lot 16, 19. A further scene sold in Christie’s, New York, 22 September 2021, lot 461.