Lot 287
  • 287

A FOLIO FROM A BARAMASA SERIES

Estimate
4,000 - 6,000 USD
bidding is closed

Description

  • A FOLIO FROM A BARAMASA SERIES
  • Opaque watercolor heightened with gold on paper
  • image: 9 1/4 by 5 3/4 in. (22.8 by 12.7 cm)
  • folio: 9 2/3 by 7 1/4 in. (22.8 by 17.7 cm)

Provenance

Acquired 1990

Catalogue Note

Two royal lovers - a nayika and a nayaka - meet in a tryst before a turreted domed pavilion, its tasseled curtain-ropes wafting gently.  She offers a betel-nut delicacy and he - eager but dignified - reaches to accept it.   In the hillside woods beyond a pair of tigers greet one another.   An elephant pulls a tree branch firmly with his trunk.  The evening sky above turning dark blue and becoming turbulent.  An illustrated folio from a Baramasa series (the songs of the seasons).  

A related Baramasa painting depicting the month of Jyeshta (May-June) in the British Museum (accession no. 1999,1202,0.5.6) contains text "The sun is so bright and scorching that the five elements -- air, water, sky, earth and fire have become one, that is as hot as fire. The roads are deserted and the tanks are parched dry. Seeing that the elephants do not venture out. The cobra and lions sleep inside shelter in this weather. Powerful creatures become weak in this season and the whole world is at unrest. The poet Keshavdas says that the elders are of the opinion that one should not venture outdoors in this season" (from a translation from the Baramasa of Keshavdas by V. P. Dwivedi, Baramasa. The Song of Seasons in Literature and Art, 1980).

Another later version of Jyeshta is also in the British Museum, London, accession no. 1940,0713,0.4.