KOTA, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, EARLY 18TH CENTURY

This dynamic and vividly coloured painting may well belong to a Krishna and Rukmini series produced in the early 18^th century. One illustration in the Municipal Museum, Allahabad, depicts Rukmini’s father consenting to her marriage to Sisupala (W.G. Archer, Indian Painting in Bundi and Kotah, London, 1959, p. 59, no. 33.) and a second which again depicts Rukmini’s father, this time with Rukmini in a room above, sold at Bonhams, New York, 11 September 2012, lot 104. In both the Allahabad and Bonhams illustration the central character of Rukmini’s father takes on the appearance of Rao Ram Singh I (r. 1696-1707) with his son Bhim Singh (r. 1707-20) also in attendance. In our painting we see an armed Krishna riding on a chariot accompanied by a group of mounted soldiers, the bottom right soldier seemingly again depicted as Ram Singh. In the sky above is Garuda who became the state emblem of Kota in 1719 (Stuart Cary Welch, Gods, Kings and Tigers: The Art of Kotah, Harvard, 1997, p. 158). The portrait of Ram Singh in the present lot, with his long moustache and light beard is comparable to a painting of him pursuing a rhinoceros sold at Christie’s, New York, 19 March 2013, lot 306.