A FOLIO FROM THE RASIKA PRIYA OF KESHAV DAS: SURATAVICHITRA MADHYA NAYIKA ATTRIBUTED TO SAJNU

Excellent overall condition. Minute stain and crease to folio border on upper right edge clearly visible in catalogue illustration. This lot is exhibited in a temporary frame.
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The ideal lovers - Radha and Krishna - lie together at sunrise looking passionately at each other.  On a bed on an open outdoor terrace of a palace, the lovers awake with their clothes in disarray as maidens pick blossoms from trees in the distance.  Krishna wears a transparent saffron wrap - his feet curling contentedly.  Radha rising up, her long hair slightly disheveled lies naked except for her crimson wrap.

The following stanzas from the Gita Govinda - the Sanskrit lyric poem by Jayadeva - seem to perfectly capture the essence of our subject:

"In the morning she arose disarrayed, and her eyes betrayed a night without slumber; when the yellow-robed God, who gazed on her with transport, thus meditated on her charms in his heavenly mind". (W. G. Archer, 1976)

This striking painting - attributed here to the artist Sajnu of Mandi - bears stylistic affinity to both Kangra and Guler works created during the period which Archer terms “Phase Two” at Mandi - a phase concurrent with the arrival of the painter Sajnu at the court of Maharaja Isvari Sen (1788-1826) marking an abrupt departure from the earlier “primitive” style of Phase One.  It may be surmised that the raja encountered the painter Sajnu during his twelve year forced exile at Kangra and persuaded him to join the royal painting atelier upon his return to Mandi around 1805.  

The pinkish-mauve outer borders of the painting are decorated with delicate gold floral sprays.  Imaginative border designs appear to be a feature of many of the works attributed to Sajnu and his circle, sometimes designed within the spandrels of oval-shaped paintings or as in the present painting, rhythmically moving throughout the outer borders themselves. 

The output of the Mandi workshops appear prolific during the 19th Century with the powerful influence of the Kangra manner predominating.  Autograph works by the hand of Sajnu appear scarce but attributable paintings to him may be guessed at by comparison with extant inscribed works such as the Hamir Hath series of 1810 and a lovely tinted drawing of a phulgar (pheasant) inscribed and dated Samvat 1867 (1810 AD) naming Sajnu as painter.  

Although uninscribed the high quality and assured hand of our present work reveals the work of a Mandi workshop master - and likely attributable to the artist Sajnu himself. 

Refer to W.G. Archer, Indian Paintings From the Punjab Hills, New York, 1973, Vol. I, pp. 352 - 366, Vol. II pp. 273-276; W.G. Archer, Visions of Courtly India, London/New York, 1976, cat. 21, p. 36; Harsha Dehejia, Rasikapriya, New Delhi, 2013, 3.40, P. 158; M.S. Randawa, Kangra Paintings on Love, New Delhi, 1962; Sotheby's New York, October 28 1991, Lots 63 - 66; Sotheby's New York, October 28 1998, Lot 225; Sotheby's New York, September 20 2002, Lot 134; and Christies New York, September 16 2014, lot 306.