INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, GULER, CIRCA 1780

The present lot represents a scene from the beginning of the Devi Mahatmya, a section of the Markandeya Purana detailing the epic of the goddess Devi in her various forms. Here we see a group of anxious gods grouped within an expansive landscape. The empty lotus base signals the absence of the goddess, as the gods work to invoke her presence. According to the Devi Mahatmya, the gods are able to summon Devi from the giant lotus, bestowing her with the powers to become the great warrior goddess Durga. Durga’s destiny, which she triumphantly secures with her trishula, is to defeat bovine demon Mahishasura who has unseated the gods from their heavenly thrones, and has conquered the earth.
Four other illustrations from this series are at the Linden Museum, illustrated by J. Bautze, Lotosmund and Löwenritt, in Indische Miniaturmalerei, Stuttgart, 1991, nos. 15-18. Another painting from this series is in the collection of the San Diego Museum of Art (Edwin Binney III Collection, acc. no. 1990.1316).