NORTH INDIA, PUNJAB HILLS, KANGRA, 1820-30

This well-provenanced painting from a Nala and Damayanti series depicts a succession of scenes after Damayanti awakes in the forest without her husband Nala. The clever illustration uses continuous narrative to convey the many moments of the story. In the top, left corner, Nala and Damayanti arrive at a resting place in the forest; after Damayanti falls deep asleep, Nala sneaks off, and in the lower left corner, regretfully makes the decision that it is for Damayanti’s own good that he leaves her. In the top tight corner, Damayanti awakens, and searches for Nala endlessly in an open landscape. In the lower right corner, she encounters a snake; a hunter quickly comes to her aid, but immediately falls in love with her and attempts to take her captive. Damayanti casts a curse on the hunter, who is depicted duplicitously in a pit of fire.
The twelfth-century epic poem, Naishadha Charita, which expands upon the love of Nala and Damayanti first detailed in the Mahabharata¸ is a favored subject of the Pahari painting schools. The text evokes the delicacy of their love and the intensity of their trials, themes best fit for the workshops celebrated for their similarly romantic Gita Govinda series. The series has been noted for its unusual use of a deep open landscape and areal perspective; another illustration from the present series can be found at the Brooklyn Museum (acc. no. 81.192.9), depicting Nala charioteering King Rituparna.