PROBABLY JODHPUR, RAJASTHAN, INDIA, CIRCA 1820

Rao Raja Budh Singh ruled the small Southern Rajput state of Bundi from 1702 to 1742. Although a long reign, Budh Singh constantly had to resist moves to depose him and reclaim his throne by neighbouring courts during a politically unstable period which followed the death of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb in 1708. A contemporaneous portrait of Budh Singh with his sons is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (IS.95-1955) and an earlier version of the present painting is in the Neotia Collection, Benares.