Bikaner, North India, circa 1625

Whilst going to pick lotus flowers, the elephant-king Gajendra was seized upon by a monstrous crocodile, or makara. Despite a long struggle, the creature would not let go and sensing that death had come to their king, the rest of the elephant herd turned to forsake him. In desperation Gajendra held a lotus flower aloft in a petition to Vishnu. Here we see the moment the god appears, preparing to throw his flaming chakra (disk) to decapitate the makara and rescue Gajendra. Symbolising the victory of the solar principle over the water creature, Garuda, the man-eagle, is also present.
This scene was popular in Vaishnava literature with the plight of the elephant ‘symbolising the inexorable entrapment of the human soul by worldly illusion, from which the invocation to Vishnu brings release’ (Andrew Topsfield, ed., In the Realm of Gods and Kings: Art of India - Selections from the Polsky Collections and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Asia Society and Museum, New York, 2004, p. 117). Similarities between the present lot and Bikaner painting of the 17th century can be made through comparison to other elephants, notably a painting of an elephant hunt by Maharaja Anup Singh, held in the Cincinatti Art Museum (1979.129). Meanwhile a similar palette and depiction of flora and fauna is observed in a painting of demons fighting over an animal limb in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (1989.236.3).