CHANDABIBI AS A FOUR-ARMED GODDESS ATTRIBUTED TO RAI VENKATCHELLAM

Acquired 1994

Some surface abrasions and some infilled areas with old repairs on two upper corners or image and along the edges, as well as carpeted ground and lower right side beneath skirt of standing figure. Image trimmed. Some damp-staining in the green background. Verso: Stains with old repairs and reinforced areas at edges. Ink blot. Some old glue stains. Conservation framed.
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Beneath a lavish gold and jeweled arched dome the famous Deccani courtesan and poetess Chandabibi (called Malaqabai) sits cross-legged - enthroned on a lotus on a floral carpet idealized as a four-armed goddess.  She wears a tall gold crown.  Accompanied by a lord depicted as saffron-clad brahmin priest and a handmaiden waving a chowrie set against a brilliant emerald green ground rising to a blue sky.

Malaqabai Chanda's face is unmistakable - we easily recognize her from portraits like the Twentieth Century example in the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad.  She was a poetess who composed verse in Persian and Urdu and was the first female sahib-i-diwan - a collected poet.  She is being revered in our painting - metaphorically as a goddess - for her intellect, talent and accomplishments.

Rai Venkatchellam, the most acclaimed painting master from the court of Nizam Ali Khan (1734-1803) of Hyderabad, had also painted Chandabibi (in human form) riding a palanquin, in a depiction of a hunting expedition of Nizam II.  Other paintings by Rai Venkatchellam are in the San Diego Museum of Art (accession nos. 1990.560 and 1990.559 "Mahlaqa Bhai with a Lover"), the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the David Collection (inv. no. 14/2015) which depicts an arched domed and columned structure very much like the magnificent overarching canopy in our present painting.