album;
miniature;
painting
- Museum number
- 1999,1202,0.1.7
- Title
- Object: The month of Asoj or Asvina. September/October.
- Description
-
Painting from an album bound in red striped fabric containing 14 miniatures; with 11 Baramasa (Song of the seasons) paintings (paintings 2 to 12), 1 from Mewar, 2 from thikanas. Opaque watercolour on paper.
The nayaka (hero) is shown visiting the home of his beloved. He is welcomed and then shown seated next to the nayika in conversation with her. The foreground depicts a blue Brahmin worshipping the nine Durgas (Goddesses) while the Brahmins outdoors are performing pūjā to ancestors. The paper the Brahmin holds in his hand is probably a list of ancestral names, which he reads out and includes in the prayer. The worship of departed ancestral souls is called pitri paksha and performed in the month of Asvina. Viṣṇu plays the flute while Lakṣmī dances, a pictorial rendering faithful to the text. They are symbolic of the dance of creation as the earth is fresh and green with new, thriving plants owing to the last rains of the monsoons.
- Production date
- 1700-1725 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 29 centimetres (painting including grey and white margins.)
-
Width: 20.20 centimetres (painting including grey and white margins)
- $Inscriptions
-
-
- Curator's comments
- Paintings 2 to 12: The Maharajas of Amber (later Jaipur) served under Mughal armies in the Deccan for prolonged periods of time. This may have led to Deccani influences in their works. See Ebeling, K. 1973, p.79 and Pratapaditya Pal, 'Pleasure Gardens of the Mind, Indian Paintings from the Jane Greenough Green Collection', Los Angeles, 1993, p.105, for examples of Amber paintings from this period.
- Location
- Not on display
- Associated titles
Associated Title: Baramasa
- Acquisition date
- 1999
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1999,1202,0.1.7
